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- Trump called the FBI "vicious monsters" controlled by left-wing radicalists at a Saturday rally.
- Two Jan. 6 panel members warned that Trump may be inciting attacks on the FBI with that speech.
- The attack came after the FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and found secret government documents.
Members of the House January 6 committee said that former President Donald Trump's criticisms of the FBI at Saturday rally may be a way of inciting his supporters to violence.
At the rally in Pennsylvania for GOP midterm candidates, Trump claimed the August 8 FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was part of a plot by his political foes.
"The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters, controlled by radical left scoundrels lawyers and the media who tell them what to do … and when to do it," Trump said.
Rep. Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans sitting on the committee, said his shows Trump was deliberately seeking to stir violence.
"Trump is attacking law enforcement and yet again using language he knows will provoke violence. Only one group of Americans has a chance to diminish this danger — Republicans," tweeted Cheney, who was recently ousted from her Wyoming congressional seat following a campaign by Trump.
"If my fellow Republicans fail to step up to stop this, they will share the blame for all that follows."
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat on the January 6 committee, gave similar remarks in a Sunday interview with CNN.
When host Jim Acosta asked Lofgren if Trump's comments constituted incitement, she said: "Well, potentially yes."
"In the lead-up to January 6th, there were extravagant claims made meant to inflame public opinion, and that is what is happening here."
"I think it's meant to turn people against law-enforcement officers," she continued. "And we've seen that sometimes that rhetoric reaches people who are prepared to act on it."
Lofgren cited the recent case of a Trump supporter who attacked an FBI office in Cincinnati after posting messages about the Mar-a-Lago raid online. The supporter was later killed by law-enforcement officers.
The Justice Department has warned of a sharp increase in threats faced by FBI officials in the wake of the raid, and has arrested several other people it alleges to have made threats against the agency.
Trump and his allies have unleashed a furious series of attacks on the agency following the raid. Sen. Lindsey Graham warned last week that Trump supporters would riot if the former president were indicted, prompting critics to say he was making a veiled threat.
The FBI believes Trump may have violated several laws in taking highly classified documents and other government records to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office, and that his aides tried to obstruct their investigation.
At the same time the former president is facing multiple investigations into his bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat, with the January 6 committee saying that Trump deliberately sought to stir his supporters to attack the Capitol in an incendiary speech ahead of the riot.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the riot. On Friday, he also said he could offer pardons to all of those convicted in relation to the attack if reelected.
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