Reports of threats being made to members of Congress dropped by more than 2,000 in 2022, following a record-breaking year in 2021 after the Jan. 6 protests, but the numbers are "still too high," U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger says.
"This has resulted in a necessary expansion of not only our investigative capabilities but our protection responsibilities as well," Manger said in a statement about statistics that the Capitol Police released this week, reports ABC News.
"While that work is ongoing, everyone continuing to decrease violent political rhetoric across the country is the best way to keep everyone safe," Manger added.
The Capitol Police investigated a total of 7,501 cases of threats being made to members of Congress, with numbers dropping from those in 2021 in the wake of the Jan. 6 protests at the Capitol, when 9,625 threats were reported.
But even with the decreased numbers in 2022, there were still some notable incidents of violence and threats made toward lawmakers, notes ABC News, including the attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, who was injured in an assault at the home in San Francisco last October.
According to reports, the suspect in the case was allegedly looking for the speaker, who was not home when the incident occurred.
Meanwhile, threats to members of Congress have been climbing since 2017, when 3,939 cases were reported, according to Capitol Police data.
The agency, in response to the increased threats, has hired special assistant U.S. attorneys, who are detailed to the Department of Justice as prosecutors to work on the threat cases. Those attorneys, however, are not working on cases that are related to Jan. 6.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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