Man charged with threatening to kill Trump
A New York man has been charged with threatening to kill Donald Trump.
According to a complaint unsealed on Monday, Thomas Welnicki of Rockaway Beach expressed interest in killing the then president in an interview with the US Capitol police in July 2020 and in several calls to the Secret Service the following year.
In the complaint, Trump was identified as Individual - 1 and filed in Brooklyn federal court. Individual- 1 was president from January 20th, 2017 to January 20th, 2021, according to a footnote.
In one voicemail left with the Secret Service, Welnicki said he would do anything to take out Trump.
That's a threat to come and arrest me, he was quoted as saying. If I had the opportunity to do it in Manhattan, I will do anything I can to take out Trump and his 12 monkeys, that would be awesome tomorrow. Trump will be in Georgia, maybe I will. The complaint said the 12 monkeys were unnamed members of Congress who Welnicki believed supported Trump. Welnicki believed there was a $350,000 reward for killing Trump.
The complaint said that the voicemail was recorded on or about 4 January 2021.
On 4 January, Trump spoke in Georgia in support of two Republican senators in run-off elections and to advance his lie about electoral fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden.
On January 6th, Trump told supporters in Washington to fight like hell to overturn the election. There were five deaths around the US Capitol. More than 100 police officers were hurt.
The security scares surrounding Trump were caused by the codename Mogul of the Secret Service.
For example, in June 2016 a British man was arrested at a rally in Las Vegas after attempting to steal a police officer's gun. The man told police his aim was to kill Trump, then a candidate for president.
In March 2017, an intruder who said he hoped to speak to the president breached the White House walls via the US treasury next door.
An arrest warrant was issued for Welnicki on Friday. His lawyer did not immediately make a statement. The US attorney's office in Brooklyn had no immediate comment.