Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said on March 2 that she was one of the targets in an assassination plot against Jewish elected state officials.
“The FBI has confirmed I was a target of the heavily armed defendant in this matter. It is my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes and Domestic Terrorism Unit takes plots to murder elected officials,”
posted Nessel on Twitter.
“If you are a victim of a hate crime or have credible information about a hate crime, please contact the Michigan Department of Attorney General at 313-456-0180.”
The FBI has arrested Jack Carpenter III for allegedly being behind the threats, one of which included
a Feb. 17 post on Twitter where the suspect said he was “heading back to Michigan now ... to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is Jewish in the Michigan government if they don’t leave, or confess.”
He allegedly posted under the Twitter handle “TemperedReason.”
Carpenter also
baselessly claimed on Twitter that he “founded a country, and then used international law to seize control of the U.S. government, and the CIA/MOSSAD are the ones behind attacking me to hide this. Biden is aware as well.”
The Mossad is Israel’s equivalent of the CIA. Given that Israel is a Jewish state, Carpenter’s rant is antisemitic.
In a Twitter
post, the Anti-Defamation League applauded law enforcement for thwarting possible assassinations against Jewish elected officials in The Great Lakes State.
“A heavily armed man who threatened to kill all Jewish elected officials in Michigan on social media has been arrested. Law enforcement had reached out to us; we have been carefully tracking. This is just the latest in a series of incidents targeting Jews and public officials in Michigan.
“We are grateful for the efforts of federal and state law enforcement. Thanks to their work, a potential catastrophic tragedy motivated by domestic extremism has been avoided in #Michigan.”
In
a post on Twitter, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) said, “A plot to kill Jewish members of the Michigan state government, including AG @DanaNessel, adds to concerns about threats against public officials and increasing antisemitism.
“We are relieved that the @FBI was able to uncover the plot before it was carried out.”
The threats come at a time of rising antisemitism in the United States.
In 2021, the last time the FBI reported hate crime statistics,
31.9 percent of hate crimes that year were against Jews.
According to a 2022 AJC survey, 43 percent of Jews believe antisemitism in the United States has “increased a lot” and 39 percent of Jews say it has “increased somewhat.”
