Texas Woman Arrested Over Threats to Kill Judge in Trump Case, LGBTQ+ Community

A Texas woman has been arrested for threatening to kill Tanya S. Chutkan, the Washington, D.C., federal judge entrusted with overseeing the case against former President Donald Trump on allegations that he tried to overturn the 2020 election. The woman also threatened U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and the LGBTQ+ community.

Federal law enforcement officials allege in a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Texas on Friday that Abigail Jo Shry, 43, from Alvin, south of Houston, used racial slurs and threatened the judge’s life in a voicemail message left in Chutkan’s chambers in Washington, D.C.

“Hey, you stupid slave ni**er,” the message began according to the complaint. “You are in our sights. We want to kill you. We want to kill Sheila Jackson Lee.”

Shry allegedly threatened anyone who attacked the former president, including all Democrats in Washington, D.C., and everyone in the LGBTQ+ community.

She said, according to the complaint, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, bitch.”

Shry also allegedly said, “You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”

Since Shry had made no effort to conceal the call’s origin, authorities could track it back to her. A law enforcement agent matched the number with Shry’s cell phone number, and after speaking with Shry, she admitted that her number was the one that law enforcement officers were trying to locate, according to authorities. In addition, she confessed that she had made the call but stated that she had no intent of harming Chutkan.

Additionally, she told investigators that she didn’t intend to harm Jackson Lee in Houston, but she allegedly said that authorities should be concerned if the congresswoman came to Alvin.

Chutkan, 61, was randomly assigned to the case in which special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. As a result of his efforts and actions to hold on to power after losing the election, Trump is facing criminal prosecution.

Shry was denied bail in Houston federal court and ordered to be detained for 30 days.

She has been charged four times for similar activities in the past year, according to the judge’s justification for holding Shry. A month of confinement was imposed on her in September for two separate charges, and in July, she was charged with threatening to harm someone else. According to the judge, Shry was on bond for the July incident at the time of the current charges.

According to her father, who testified at the hearing, she is a non-violent alcoholic who sits on her couch watching the news all day, becomes drunk and agitated, and then calls around making threats, according to court documents.

Despite his offer to take her in, the judge ruled that she should be held for 30 days and then reevaluated.

“The Court will hold a hearing at 11 a.m. on September 13, 2023,” the judge wrote. “The purpose of the hearing is to hear from the parties as to why Defendant should or should not be immediately released from custody and placed into an inpatient substance abuse therapy and mental health treatment program.”