A Texas woman has been arrested for threatening to kill federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case in Washington, DC.
Abigail Jo Shry, 43, of Alvin, allegedly left a voicemail threatening to kill Chutkan and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Aug. 5, according to a criminal complaint filed on Friday in the Southern District of Texas.
“Hey, you stupid slave n—-r,” she started her message, which she left at the judge’s chambers around 7:50 p.m., Department of Homeland Security officials wrote in the complaint obtained by WUSA9.
Shry, 43, threatened to kill anyone who went against Trump, including Chutkan, Lee, “all Democrats in Washington D.C. and all people in the LGBTQ community,” investigators wrote.
“You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” she said.
“If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, bitch,” she told Chutkan.
“You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it,” she added.
Three days later, DHS conducted a “knock and talk” at her home, during which Shry admitted that she had made the phone call.
She told the officers that she had no plans to travel to Washington, DC, but said during the conversation that if Lee comes to Alvin, which is about 30 miles south of downtown Houston, “then we need to worry,” DHS agents wrote.
Chutkan was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2014 and was assigned earlier this month to oversee the government’s case accusing Trump of conspiring with others to spread false claims about widespread voter fraud in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Lee is a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, which introduced articles of impeachment against Trump a day after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Both Chutkan and Lee are black.
On Monday, a federal judge in Texas ordered Shry held without bond during a preliminary detention hearing, WUSA9 reported. She is charged with communicating a threat to injure another person across state lines.
Magistrate Judge Sam S. Sheldon noted in Shry’s detention order that she had been charged four times in the past year for engaging in similar conduct, including at least two cases that resulted in a conviction and 30 stints behind bars.
Shry was charged on July 11 with misdemeanor threat causing fear of imminent serious bodily injury. She was out on bond in that case when she made the threats to Chutkan’s office.
Shry is scheduled to appear for a full bond hearing on Sept. 13.
