A woman arrested Monday in Chicago faces federal charges for allegedly sending emails threatening the lives of former President Donald Trump and his teenage son, Barron.
Tracy Fiorenza, 41, made her initial court appearance at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, hours after being arrested at her Chicago residence Monday morning.
Judge Jeffrey Cummings told Fiorenza — who appeared in court wearing blue athletic shorts and a green tank top with a large skull printed on the front — that she’ll be transferred to Florida, where the charges were filed.
She was remanded into the custody of U.S. Marshals until her detention hearing Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors want Fiorenza detained before a hearing can take place in Florida because Barron Trump, 17, is a minor.
Fiorenza was charged with transmitting threats to kill or injure another person in interstate commerce in a criminal complaint filed Aug. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
According to the complaint, Fiorenza emailed the headmaster of Barron Trump’s school in Palm Beach County on May 21 and wrote, “I will state that I will shoot Donald Trump Sr. AND Barron Trump straight in the face at any opportunity I get!”
Fiorenza allegedly emailed the headmaster again on June 5, saying that she would “slam a bullet” in Barron’s head “with his father IN SELF DEFENSE!”
A Secret Service agent reached out to Fiorenza in June and arranged for an interview that month at the U.S. Secret Service’s Chicago field office. During the meeting, Fiorenza was shown copies of her emails, the complaint states.
Fiorenza allegedly confirmed that she “intentionally wrote” and sent the emails from her residence at the time in Plainfield.
Social media pages that appear to be linked to Fiorenza contain many references to the Illuminati, a secret society, and images of Donald Trump with a noose around his neck.
Her Facebook page states she attended Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park and is a former social studies teacher.
The crime Fiorenza is accused of committing carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Dan Hesler, Fiorenza’s attorney, declined to comment after the hearing Monday.
Threats against current and former elected officials have been in the national spotlight in recent weeks.
Last week, a Texas woman was arrested and charged with threatening to kill the Jamaican-born federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump in Washington and a Black member of Congress.
And earlier this month, an armed Utah man accused of making violent threats against President Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents as they attempted to serve a search warrant.
Authorities have grappled with rising threats of political violence in the wake of several indictments against Donald Trump.
He is confronting both a presidential primary season and four criminal cases in four different cities. He is set for trial March 25 in a New York state case related to an alleged hush money payment to a porn actor.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump was charged last week with scheming to undo the results of that state’s presidential election, have proposed a March 4 trial date — though that is likely to be delayed given the complexity of a sprawling racketeering case that involves 19 defendants.
In Florida, a federal judge has set a May 20 trial date on charges that Trump illegally hoarded classified documents and concealed them from investigators.
Contributing: AP
