WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Pennsylvania man has been charged with making threats online to murder President Donald Trump and immigration agents, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.
Shawn Monper, 32, was charged on Wednesday with four counts of threatening to murder a U.S. official to impede their official duties, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Pittsburgh.
“Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department of Justice will find, arrest and prosecute the suspect to the fullest extent of the law and seek the maximum appropriate punishment,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Monper made several comments on YouTube between February and April threatening to murder Trump, top U.S. officials and agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the complaint.
“Nah, we just need to start killing people, Trump, Elon, all the heads of agencies Trump appointed, and anyone who stands in the way,” Monper allegedly wrote in one message cited in the complaint.
Billionaire Elon Musk has served as an adviser to Trump in the president’s campaign to downsize and reshape the federal government.
The defendant has not yet entered a plea. He has been held in U.S. custody to await a detention hearing scheduled for Monday.
Monper is from Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was targeted in an assassination attempt last July as a presidential candidate.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Will Dunham)
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