A Tennessee man is facing federal charges after allegedly threatening to assassinate President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Barack Obama in a series of online posts. The suspect has been identified as Joseph Cecil Vandevere, 52, from Knoxville, Tennessee.
The FBI launched an investigation into Vandevere after being alerted to a series of disturbing posts on social media platforms. The posts, which have since been deleted, contained explicit threats towards the aforementioned political figures.
Upon investigation, Vandevere was arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville. He was charged with multiple counts of making threats across state lines and was subsequently taken into federal custody.
According to the court documents, the threats were made over several social media platforms. The investigators were able to link back these threats to Vandevere by analyzing the IP addresses. The offending posts also carried an identical “digital signature” to other posts made by Vandevere on his personal social media accounts.
Post his arrest, Vandevere is being held in federal detention without bail as he waits for his court proceedings to begin. The charges he is facing are serious and can carry a lengthy prison sentence, if proven guilty. The federal authorities are treating this as a serious matter due to the high-profile targets of his alleged threats.
In response to these threats, law enforcement officials have reinforced security measures to ensure the safety of all high-profile political figures and their team. While the authorities are tight-lipped about the specific security measures taken, it is clear that the threat has been taken very seriously.