Texas Woman Charged With Threatening Trump Judge

'If Trump doesn't get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you,' she allegedly told Chutkan
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 17, 2023 5:03 AM CDT
Texas Woman Charged With Threatening Trump Judge
This photo provided by the Administrative Office of the US Courts shows US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.   (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts via AP, File)

A Texas woman left a voicemail message threatening to kill the judge overseeing former President Trump's federal election interference case, prosecutors say. Abigail Jo Shry, 43, allegedly called the chambers of US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on August 5, two days after the former president was arraigned in the case, Bloomberg Law reports. According to court documents, Shry said, "If Trump doesn't get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b----."

According to court documents, Shry used a racial slur and called the Black judge a "stupid slave," NBC reports. A criminal complaint states that Shry also threatened US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Black Democrat whose district includes parts of Houston, the New York Times reports. The complaint states that when federal agents went to Shry's home in Alvin, south of Houston, she admitted making the calls and said she didn't plan to visit Washington or Houston, but "if Sheila Jackson Lee comes to Alvin, then we need to worry."

At a detention hearing in federal court in Houston on Wednesday, Shry was denied bail and ordered to remain in custody for at least 30 days. Court papers state that her father told the hearing that Shry is a "nonviolent alcoholic" who "sits on her couch daily watching the news while drinking too many beers," the Times reports. He said that after drinking, she sometimes gets "agitated by the news" and starts calling people and threatening them. (Chutkan has told Trump to take "special care" in his public statements about the case.)

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