DHS boss Noem vows to hunt down those making swatting calls targeting conservative media

Department of Homeland (DHS) Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined FBI Director Kash Patel in the fight against swatting calls targeting members of the “conservative new[s] media,” announcing Wednesday her department will “hunt these cowards down.”Patel recently confirmed a rise in swatting incidents, when someone tries to send armed police to another person’s house under false pretenses, aimed at media figures and their families.The act, she said, puts the lives of the victims and responding officers in danger.“Under President Trump’s leadership, we will not sit idly by as conservative new[s] media and their families are being targeted by false swatting,” Noem wrote in a post to X Wednesday. She added that DHS is capable of tracing phone numbers and tracking location information.“We will use it to hunt these cowards down,” Noem wrote.“This is an attack on our law enforcement and innocent families and we will prosecute it as such.”Noem posted after several members of the conservative media, including radio hosts, podcasters, influencers and pundits, became victims of alleged swatting incidents at their homes.Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo, a conservative radio talk show host, told Fox News host Will Cain that during a swatting call at his Texas home last week, he was awoken at 2 a.m.

by more than a half dozen armed deputies.Pagliarulo said he received an alert from one of his security cameras and saw a deputy armed with an AR-15 at his front door.“[I] called 911 because now we’ve got to find out — if it’s the good guys, I’ve got to be very careful.If it’s the bad guys, I’ve got to go out with my gun and try to protect my family,” Pagliarulo said.Dispatchers confirmed the sheriff’s office received a 911 call about a hostage situation with multiple dogs shot, apparently pretending to be Pagliarulo.The swatter claimed someone was “bleeding out upstairs” and to “please hurry and get inside,” making the situation even more ...