‘Dead man walking’: SoCal man charged with threatening to assassinate Trump
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- Yucca Valley resident Thomas Eugene Streavel, 73, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three felony counts of making threats on Facebook against then-President-elect Donald Trump.
- He could face up to 15 years in prison.
He openly advocated for the death of then-President-elect Donald Trump, hailing himself as an “assassin” and threatening to shoot the would-be 47th commander in chief shortly after the election, prosecutors say.
Those words, left on Facebook posts, are at the center of a federal grand jury indictment. On Tuesday, Yucca Valley resident Thomas Eugene Streavel, 73, pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of making threats.
The San Bernardino County man was arrested Monday just before 11 a.m. by United States Marshals and arraigned the next day inside Central District Court in Riverside.
He’s out on a $10,000 bond and is expected back in court July 28. Streavel could serve up to 15 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.
“This defendant is charged with threatening the life of our President — a man who has already survived two deranged attempts on his life,” said U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi in a statement. “The Department of Justice takes these threats with the utmost seriousness and will prosecute this crime to the fullest extent of the law.”
A number listed for Streavel was not answered, and no attorney was listed for him in court documents.
His actions were detailed in a grand jury indictment from May 29 that was unsealed Tuesday.
Donald J. Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt on Saturday — an attack that echoed previous shootings involving presidential candidates.
Streavel posted a variety of threats in the days after Trump’s electoral victory in November, according to the Justice Department.
“[T]rump is a dead man walking for the time being until a patriot like myself blows his [expletive] brains out in the very near future,” Streavel posted on Nov. 6., according to court documents.
Six days later, Streavel posted on Facebook that he was “willing to make America great again and blow his [expletive] brains out,” the indictment says.
There were similar Facebook rants on Nov. 19 and 28.
In the earlier instance, he wrote, “Let me put a bullet right between the ears of your president-elect…That’s my purpose for living,” according to the indictment.
He later posted, “I’m praying for a successful assassination of your president-elect.” He then added, “my life’s mission is killing the worthless LOSER [expletive] and my mission starts tonight so watch yourself trump [sic], you are a dead [expletive] and I am your assassin,” court documents show.
The Secret Service said that it was investigating and that the incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. “The former president is safe,” the agency said.
Streavel’s posts extend to before the election, when on Oct. 15 he wrote, “today is the perfect day to blow his brains out and I’d love to be the one to pull the trigger.”
The Secret Service is also investigating the matter.
“The type of rhetoric and threats made by this defendant are similar to those that led to an attempt on the President’s life last year,” said United States Atty. Bill Essayli. “There is no place for political violence or threats of violence in the United States.”
Trump was injured in a shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13. The shooting left one rally attendee dead and two critically injured, and the unidentified gunman was killed by the Secret Service, according to that agency.
At Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf course on Sept. 15, a Secret Service agent scoping out the area one or two holes ahead of him saw the muzzle of an AK-47-style weapon pointing out of the tree line on the perimeter of the course.
Trump was unharmed in the second attempt on his life in two months.
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