Texas woman arrested for threatening judge presiding over Trump case

A Texas woman was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly making racially charged death threats against the Black federal judge presiding over former U.S. president Donald Trump's conspiracy case for trying to overturn the 2020 election, court documents showed.

On August 5, Abigail Jo Shry left a phone message at the Washington offices of U.S. Judge Tanya Chutkan that included threats on her life, according to a complaint filed by an agent of the Department of Homeland Security.

The 43-year-old woman from Alvin, Texas called Chutkan a "stupid black slave" and said "You are in our sights, we want to kill you," according to the document filed with a federal court in the southern district of Texas.

"If Trump is not elected in 2024, we are going to kill you, so be careful," said the defendant, adding that Chutkan's family was also a target.

Shry also threatened to kill anyone who persecuted Trump, naming Black lawmaker Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas, the documents show.

On Wednesday a judge ordered that Shry be placed under arrest and brought before the court.

Trump, 77, is currently the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 elections, but faces four criminal trials as he seeks a return to the White House.

Federal Judge Chutkan, 61, was randomly assigned to oversee Trump's trial on charges of conspiring to reverse the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Two years ago, Chutkan rejected a lawsuit by Trump contending that as president he could not turn over documents to a congressional committee investigating the 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.

She responded that "presidents are not kings" and that Trump was no longer in office.

Trials over the Capitol attack have been held in Washington, and Chutkan has presided over nearly three dozen of them, handing down some of the harshest sentences against Trump supporters involved in the events.

Born in Jamaica, she was appointed by former Democratic president Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in June 2014.