On Sunday, DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, in one of her many Fox News appearances, made this claim while talking about still unclear incident in Chicago where it was claimed that people boxed in federal agents and someone was shot by a federal agent:
So our intelligence indicates that these people are organized. They’re getting more and more people on their team as far as attacking officers, and they’re making plans to ambush them and to kill them. We have specific officers and agents that have bounties that have been put out on their heads. It’s been $2000 to kidnap them, $10,000 to kill them. They’ve released their pictures, they’ve sent them between their networks. And it’s an extremely dangerous situation and unprecedented. So we’ve put protective detail around those individuals, changed some of our operations to keep our officers safe.
That is a rather concerning claim, but details were not provided.
On Monday, the Border Patrol’s hype guy Gregory Bovino, in one of his many Fox News appearances, and made a similar claim:
it’s a war zone out there. Secretary Noem mentioned a bounty on the heads of federal agents that $2000 to kidnap, $10,000 to kill senior Border Patrol officials and senior ICE officials here in Chicago.
Also on Monday, the DHS put out a press release that told a very different story, though with certain elements that matched the previous story. They claimed that a bounty had been placed for those amounts, but for only one person, Gregory Bovino. This was based on a claimed confidential information and a Snapchat message:
Kristi Noem stated “[t]hey’ve released their pictures.” The picture included in the Snapchat message is a crop of a photo taken by Brian Cassella of the Chicago Tribune of Gregory Bovino during “an immigration blitz show of force”. It wouldn’t be hard to find other photos of Bovino, as he loves public attention.
The press release includes a photo of the person who was supposed to issued the bounty. Based on his attire, it appears he works in construction. Does he have $10,000 for a bounty on this guy? Would somebody think that $10,000 is worth it to try to kill such high profile official? Was the whole thing a set up by a confidential informant? Kristi Noem claimed “they’ve sent them between their networks,” who was the Snapchat message even sent to. Was the confidential information the one sent the message? These would be all good questions for reporters to ask Kristi Noem and DHS.
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