Following last year’s election, federal authorities accused a man from Southern California of threatening to kill President Trump on Facebook.
According to a Justice Department news release on Tuesday, the man, who is 73-year-old Thomas Eugene Streavel of San Bernardino County, was charged last week with three counts of threatening a president-elect.
A number of irate Facebook posts that Streavel allegedly wrote about Mr. Trump before and after the election, some of which expressed a wish for his assassination, are listed in an indictment that was made public on Tuesday.
According to the Justice Department, the accusations center on three messages that were purportedly written in November.
Streavel entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment on Tuesday after being taken into custody on Monday. The Justice Department said in a statement that he was ordered to be freed on $10,000 bond.
The problem is being looked at by the Secret Service. A federal court database did not include Streavel’s attorneys.
“This defendant is charged with threatening the life of our President – a man who has already survived two deranged attempts on his life,” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated.
During the election last year, Mr. Trump was the target of two assassination attempts. In July, Mr. Trump was shot in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and in September, a man was accused of attempting to kill the then-candidate at his golf club in Florida.
Although judges decide on sentencing, it is common for federal criminal offenders to get sentences below the maximum, which is five years if found guilty of threatening the president or president-elect.
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The Justice Department has frequently charged Mr. Trump, former President Joe Biden, and other prominent people with threats in recent years.
According to police, threats against public servants, including judges, prosecutors, and members of Congress, are also increasing.
A Romanian man entered a guilty plea on Monday to being the head of a ring that used bomb threats and “swatting” calls, in which a person makes a bogus police report in an attempt to trigger a big police reaction, against hundreds of members of Congress and a former president.
