A Texas woman has been arrested and charged over threats to kill the federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal trial.
Abigail Jo Shry, of Alvin, Texas, is accused of calling the federal courthouse in Washington and leaving threatening messages for US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on August 5.
Investigators traced her phone number and she later admitted to making the threatening call, according to court records, which allegedly included a racist term for Judge Chutkan.
In the call, Shry allegedly told the judge, who is overseeing an election conspiracy case against Trump: “You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”
Prosecutors allege Shry also said: "If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you,” and also threatened to kill US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat running for mayor of Houston.
A judge earlier this week ordered Shry to be jailed.
Court records show Shry is represented by the Houston public defender’s office, which did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Wednesday.
The caller also threatened all Democrats in DC and the LGBTQ+ community, according to prosecutors.
When federal agents visited Shry’s home three days later she said she had harboured no intention of going to Washington DC, according to the court filing.
But she is alleged to have added: “If Shelia Jackson Lee comes to Alvin, then we need to worry”.
Trump has heavily criticised Judge Chutkan, calling her “highly partisan" and “VERY BIASED & UNFAIR!” because of her past comments in a separate case overseeing the sentencing of one of the defendants charged in the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
Chutkan in a hearing on Friday imposed a protective order in the case limiting what evidence handed over by prosecutors the former president and his legal team can publicly disclose.
She warned Trump’s lawyers that his defence should be mounted in the courtroom and “not on the internet”.
