Capitol Hill lawmakers experience surge of swatting calls, bomb threats in wake of November election

Earlier this month, a woman died in a crash in Rome, Georgia, after her vehicle collided with that of an officer who was responding to a fake bomb threat at the home of Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. It was among the latest in a series of threats triggering police responses against her and other members of Congress.

“This is the trend that we’re seeing,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told CBS News. “These people are getting threatened in their homes, their families are being threatened.”

In a Dec. 11 Senate hearing, Manger testified that there had been more than 50 so-called “swatting” attacks on members of Congress over the previous month. These are incidents in which someone falsely claims a bomb or mass shooting at the home of a public official in order to draw a SWAT team response and potentially trigger a tragedy.

Read more: CBS News