SOURCE: The Guardian – A 72-year-old man in New York has been criminally charged for 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 US Capitol police in July 2020 and in several calls to the Secret Service the following year.
Trump was identified as “Individual-1” in the complaint, filed in Brooklyn federal court. A footnote said “Individual-1” was president from 20 January 2017 to 20 January 2021.
According to the complaint, in one voicemail left with the Secret Service, Welnicki said he would “do anything I can to take out” Trump.
“Oh yeah, that’s a threat to come and arrest me,” he was quoted as saying. “I will do anything I can to take out [Trump] and his 12 monkeys … if I had the opportunity to do it in Manhattan, 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. It also said Welnicki believed there was a $350,000 reward available for killing Trump.
According to the complaint, the voicemail was recorded “on or about” 4 January 2021.
Trump spoke in Georgia on 4 January, in support of two Republican senators in run-off elections and to advance his lie about electoral fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden.
Two days later, on 6 January, Trump told supporters in Washington to “fight like hell” to overturn the election. Five people died around the ensuing attack on the US Capitol. More than 100 police officers were hurt.
Given the codename “Mogul” by the Secret Service, Trump was the subject of security scares.
In June 2016, for example, a British man was arrested at a rally in Las Vegas after trying to steal a police officer’s gun. The man told police his aim had been 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 comment. The US attorney’s office in Brooklyn had no immediate comment.
