A Texas woman has been charged with threatening to kill Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court in DC, who’s overseeing former President Trump’s case surrounding attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Abigail Jo Shry called the judge’s chambers on August 5 and left a voicemail threatening to “kill anyone who went after former President Trump,” and, “You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”
According to court filings, Shry called the judge, who is Black, a “stupid slave n*****” and went on to also threaten the judge “personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”
The Alvin, Texas woman has been charged with Transmission in Interstate or Foreign Commerce of any Communication Containing a Threat to Injure the Person of Another. She is being held in detention pending trial, with a bond hearing set for September 13.
On August 3 Trump was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts related to his actions surrounding the 2020 Presidential election and the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. The indictment was submitted to a federal grand jury by the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Last Friday, Judge Chutkan issued a protective order that restricts Trump from disclosing sensitive materials in the case, including grand jury or witness information.
The Department of Justice requested the protective order after Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, in all caps, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
At the hearing on the protective order, Judge Chutkan warned Trump against further “inflammatory statements” saying she would do what she needed to keep him from intimidating witnesses or tainting potential jurors—including taking the case to trial more quickly if the protective order is breached.
Since then, Trump has posted on his social media site that Judge Chutkan “obviously wants me behind bars. VERY BIASED & UNFAIR.”
Trump, who was also indicted in Georgia Monday on 13 criminal counts regarding the 2020 election in that state by another Black woman, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, posted on August 16 about a “rigged election,” adding that authorities were going “after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!” which critics have suggested he used in lieu of the racial slur that Shry used in her voice mail to Judge Chutkan.
Meanwhile, the names of the grand jury members in the Georgia case, which are listed in that indictment, have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric.
