Just hours after former Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone stood outside of Manhattan criminal court and called Donald Trump an “authoritarian”, his mother’s home was reportedly swatted.
Mr Fanone told NBC News that his 78-year-old mother opened her door to law enforcement officers and SWAT team members on Tuesday night after an individual sent a fake “manifesto” posing as Mr Fanone threatening to harm others and claiming he killed his mother.
The email, viewed by NBC News, included Fanone’s mother’s home address in Virginia.
“How dangerous is it to send law enforcement to an address in which you essentially are describing an active shooter, in which the only person present is a 78-year-old f***ing woman,” Mr Fanone told the news outlet.
Earlier in the day, Mr Fanone joined actor Robert DeNiro, fellow retired police officer Harry Dunn and members of President Joe Biden’s campaign to denounce Mr Trump.
Mr Fanone invoked his experience being assaulted by rioters at the Capitol on January 6 to tell people Mr Trump will not serve the public if he is re-elected.
“This election is about Donald Trump and his vision for the office of the president of the United States, not as a public servant who answers to the people who elected him, but as an authoritarian who answers to and serves only himself,” he said.
Mr Fanone believes his anti-Trump rhetoric inspired someone to create the fake “manifesto” and email it to several, including email addresses associated with the high school he attended for one year.
“This is the reality of going up against or challenging Donald Trump,” Mr Fanone told NBC News. “These swatting calls are incredibly f***ing dangerous, especially when the target is somebody like my mom.”
The Independent has reached out to the FBI and Alexandria Police Department for comment.
Swatting is the criminal act of falsely reporting an emergency to law enforcement or other emergency services and directing them to a person’s address.
Over the last few years, the US has seen an increase in swatting incidents in connection to a politician or political event.
Earlier this year, former presidential candidate Nikki Haley said her elderly parents were swatted and around that time the White House was swatted after someone called with reports of a false fire. Representative Majorie Taylor Greene reported her home was swatted in December.
But many of the swatting incidents have been in connection to Mr Trump. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the former president’s federal election interference case, was swatted in January. Mr Trump repeatedly attacked Judge Chutkan on social media.
Similarly, the Maine Secretary of State who briefly disqualified Mr Trump from the state’s ballot was swatted in January. Mr Trump accused her of being biased in that case.
Jack Smith, the federal prosecutor who brought charges against Mr Trump in his classified documents and federal election interference case, had a swatting attempt in December.
The judge who oversaw the civil fraud trial against Mr Trump was also swatted after the former president railed against him.
Mr Fanone told NBC News that police received “more than two dozen calls” in connection to Tuesday’s swatting incident. He said his father also was a target but he was out of the country.
