ADL says it surfaced mosque threat by suspect in FBI investigation

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says it surfaced threats against a mosque to law enforcement officials last month.

The suspect in the case, Giovanni Pimienta, was arrested on August 11 in Florida. Authorities said he had threatened to “shoot up a mosque.”

Carla Hill, the vice president of research and investigation at the ADL’s Center on Extremism, says ADL researchers reported findings linked to the case with the FBI and South Carolina authorities on July 16.

Hill says the ADL reported Telegram users discussing weaponry and carrying out an attack, posting an AI video of a South Carolina mosque, and discussing an attack on a San Diego mosque earlier this year.

The ADL researchers also obtained a 61-page manifesto from the Telegram chat that included anti-Jewish rhetoric.

Hill says the manifesto said “Jew,” “Jewish,” or “ZOG” 185 times. “ZOG” stands for “Zionist Occupied Government,” a conspiratorial term common on the far right.

The Center on Extremism says one of the users in the Telegram chat is “believed with a high degree of certainty to be Pimienta.”

The FBI has not confirmed that the ADL information led to the arrest and does not comment on pending investigations, but details in the affidavit filed against Pimienta appear to corroborate the connection.

The affidavit says that the threatening posts were “captured and reported” to the FBI and that law enforcement interviewed Pimienta on July 17, a day after the ADL reported the threat.