Several of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and picks for his White House team have been targeted by bomb threats.
The FBI said it was aware of “numerous bomb threats” as well as “swatting incidents”, in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target’s home.
Threats were made against Trump’s choices to lead the departments of Housing, Agriculture and Labor, as well as his pick for US ambassador to the United Nations.
Police are investigating the incidents, which happened on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team, said the Trump appointees “were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them”.
She said that several people had been targeted and “law enforcement acted quickly to ensure” their safety.
“With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,” she said.
Neither Leavitt nor the FBI identified any of the targets by name.
New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who Trump has named to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, was the first to say her family home had been targeted by a bomb threat.
Her office said the congresswoman was informed of the threat while she was driving with her husband and three-year-old son from Washington DC to New York for Thanksgiving.
New York police told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the New York home of Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was also threatened.
Hellbound and Down 