Greg Bovino, the former Border Patrol commander who led President Donald Trump’s mass deportation raids, accused senior administration officials of pulling his security detail because “they want me dead.”
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Bovino made the accusation in an interview with Tucker Carlson released Wednesday. He retired at the end of March, months after being removed as commander-at-large.
“The administration didn’t want you to have security? Why?” Carlson asked.
“I think to silence me,” Bovino answered. “Do I think they want me dead at this point? Yes.”
“Do I think they want me killed? Absolutely,” he added. “The minute I left, security detail gets pulled. I’m one of the highest, if not the highest, threats in DHS. Death threats.”
“Those Border Patrol agents refused to leave my house, and I had to direct order, hey, no, you’re leaving, because I’m not in the Border Patrol anymore,” Bovino continued. “We’re going to shut that guy up.”
He named Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott as the official who took the detail, with border czar Tom Homan present.
“I think Rodney Scott — he’s the one that took my security detail away, with Homan there. Yeah, absolutely,” Bovino said.
“I don’t think Trump would,” Bovino said of the president. “I think if Trump knew what they had done and what they would do to Border Patrol agents or ICE officers or anyone that disagrees with them, I think he would have an absolute panic attack or a heart attack.”
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“They’re guarding the gate,” Bovino said of the officials he accuses of keeping Trump from the truth. “You know, the surrender in Minnesota. People say, hey, Bovino, you retired. I did. I retired. That’s neat, clean, and easy.”
Bovino acknowledged to the New York Times that his retirement was not entirely voluntary, the Guardian reported.
“If they want you gone — if those gate guards want you gone — better watch out. They’ll come for your retirement. They’ll come for everything,” the former Border Patrol chief told Carson.
He was removed in January after federal agents fatally shot U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti during the Minneapolis operation, the last of the deployments that also took him to Los Angeles and Chicago, CNN reported.
A federal judge in Chicago found last year that Bovino lied about why he threw a tear gas canister into a crowd, CBS News noted.
“They’re coming after other family members as well,” Bovino revealed, adding that the FBI had to intercept his mail.
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Neither Scott nor Homan has publicly responded to Bovino’s allegations.
