Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray on what actions are being taken to combat antisemitic violence during a committee hearing Tuesday.
Rosen, who is Jewish, recently received calls from a Las Vegas man who allegedly threatened to kidnap, assault or murder her in several voicemail messages.
In response, Wray said antisemitic attacks are “a threat that is reaching in some ways sort of historic levels,” because the “Jewish community is targeted by terrorists really across the spectrum, homegrown violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations, both Sunni and Shia violent extremists.”
He added the agency has the issue on its radar through its joint terrorism task forces and in local field offices through shared intelligence, as American Jewish Committee statistics show Jewish people are victims of 60% of religious-based hate crimes in the U.S., though they comprise 2.4% of the population.
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Rosen said she’s “feeling the same as Jews are feeling all around the world” who are “under attack and under threat.”
“Now I have full confidence in our department of justice and law enforcement to work on this case,” she said. “But frankly, students across the country, K through 12 and college campuses, look at the protests around the world. Jews are feeling under attack.”
Rosen added: “Kids should feel safe when they go to school, whether it’s preschool, elementary, junior high, high school or college campuses. Everyone should feel safe, having to lock themselves into libraries, being afraid to go to dinner, being afraid to walk around campus — so we have to work on all of this.”
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According to a criminal complaint, the Department of Justice said in an Oct. 27 filing that 43-year-old John Anthony Miller left several threatening voicemails for the office of a U.S. senator between Oct. 11 and Oct. 19.
Fox News confirmed voicemails were left for Rosen.
The criminal complaint said that on Oct. 17, Miller threatened to assault, kidnap or even murder Rosen — who was not named in the complaint — with intent to impede, intimidate or interfere with her duties as a senator.
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The voicemails were filled with profanity, according to the criminal complaint.
For example, Miller said in one of the voicemails, “All these [expletive]ing lies is in your [expletive]ing hands, you [expletive]ing [expletive], and I’m gonna [expletive]ing see you soon, you [expletive]ing sellout [expletive]ing [expletive] [expletive].”
Miller was arrested on Thursday, and now faces one count of threatening a federal official.
“Threats against public officials should be taken seriously,” a spokesperson for Rosen said. “Senator Rosen trusts the U.S. Attorney’s office and federal law enforcement to handle this matter.”
Fox News’ Greg Wehner, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
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