A Texas woman was arrested and has been charged with threatening to kill the federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Washington and a member of Congress.
Abigail Jo Shry of Alvin, Texas, called the federal courthouse in Washington and left the threatening message — using a racist term for U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan — on Aug. 5, court records show. Investigators traced her phone number and she later admitted to making the threatening call, according to a criminal complaint.
In the call, Shry told the judge, who is overseeing the election conspiracy case against Trump, “You are in our sights, we want to kill you," the documents said. Prosecutors allege Shry also said, “If Trump doesn't get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you," and she threatened to kill U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat running for mayor of Houston, according to court documents.
A judge earlier this week ordered Shry 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.
Trump has publicly assailed Chutkan, a former assistant public defender who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, 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 Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Chutkan in a hearing 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 defense should be mounted in the courtroom and “not on the internet.”
U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) shared her concerns over the Republican tax reform bill and her excitement for the SELF DRIVE Act.The bill meant to expedite the testing of autonomous vehicles was unanimously approved by the House.
After groundbreaking results in the 2017 off-year elections, newly elected Virginia delegate Elizabeth Guzman joins Cheddar from Capitol Hill. She discusses her pride in being a one of the few Latinas taking office, what it means to represent Latino children, and why the state of Virginia responded as it did at the ballot.
The one thing issue that could impact Hawaii more than it can any other state is North Korea, Colleen Hanabusa told Cheddar. "I'm just glad [Trump] didn't start tweeting while he was in South Korea."
New Jersey's first Sikh mayor spoke to Cheddar about 2017's groundbreaking elections. Bhalla says that American citizens wanted to have their voices heard at the ballot boxes.
This congressman believes that President Donald Trump understands what it takes to prevent North Korea from expanding its nuclear weapons project. As the president continues his multi-nation trip in Asia, this is the message he hopes Trump gets across to North Korea and other countries.
Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger joins Cheddar to remind us that Russia is not our ally. He says that the administration's possible involvement with Russian interference in the U.S. elections remains unclear, but the country needs to adopt a tougher stance on the issue.
"[Putin] is actually a bad dude," Kinzinger said. He points out that prior administrations that have been optimistic about smoothing over relations with him have never succeeded.
"He's really just an old KGB agent that wants to basically tear up the old way of Eastern Europe," Kinzinger said.
As Washington debates the future of Obamacare, the former Congresswoman representing the U.S. Virgin Islands says the statute is still "the law of the land," and it will be difficult to eliminate.
While the Republican Congressman from Ohio says passing new laws on gun control won't solve the problem, he points out that current laws need to be followed and that there's no right or wrong time to talk about the issue.
The congresswoman says that President Trump tries to undermine institutions that challenge him and encourage check and balances, something deeply troubling.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman shares her outlook on mass shootings in the U.S., a day after a gunman killed 26 in Texas and just a month removed from her own city seeing the worst rampage in U.S. history.
