FBI warns 'armed protests' planned at all 50 State capitols
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Washington : The FBI has warned that it has received intelligence that "armed protests" were being planned at all 50 US State capitols and in Washington DC in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, leading to fears of more deadly violence by extremists supporting outgoing President Donald Trump.
Posts on pro-Trump and far-right online networks have called for protest action on a number of dates, including armed demonstrations in cities across the country on January 17 and a march in Washington DC on inauguration day itself.
"Armed protests are being planned at all 50 State capitols from January 16 through at least January 20, and at the US Capitol from January 17 through January 20," according to the internal Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) bulletin obtained by CNN and other media outlets. Biden is slated to be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, along with Indian-origin Kamala Harris as the Vice President.
On Monday, Biden told reporters he was not afraid to take the oath of office outside of the US Capitol. Both he and Harris are still expected to be sworn in outside the building, only two weeks after it was the site of a deadly raid by radical supporters of Trump opposing the election result.
Only after the Congressional certification of the November 3 presidential elections last week, the outgoing Republican President Trump has reluctantly accepted the election results and promised a smooth transition of power.
But he still believes the presidential elections had massive voters' fraud, an allegation which remains unsubstantiated and have been thrown out of courts dozens of times.
The Site Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist threats online, said in a report that a day of armed far-right protests is scheduled for January 17 and has been in the works for weeks, with Trump supporters and anti-government activists promoting marches in Washington and at State capitols around the nation, The Wall Street Journal said.
