An Illinois man has been accused of violently threatening a federal choose within the District of Florida who has heard Donald Trump’s categorized paperwork case, in response to an indictment made public Thursday.
Eric James Rennert, 65, faces 5 federal counts within the indictment that accuses him of speaking interstate threats and threatening to assault, kidnap and homicide a federal choose.
The communications additionally included threats to hurt or kidnap members of the choose’s household, prosecutors allege. Court docket paperwork don’t identify the choose who obtained the threats, however point out they occurred in St. Lucie County, Florida.
U.S. District Choose Aileen Cannon, who presided over the legal case accusing Trump of illegally withholding categorized paperwork, is predicated in that county together with one other federal choose.
Representatives for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Miami, which introduced the cost, and the federal court docket for the Southern District of Florida didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The threats, which occurred on three events in Could and July, have been meant to retaliate in opposition to the choose “for the efficiency of official duties,” in response to the indictment.
Rennert has been arrested and will likely be transported to Florida for his subsequent court docket look, in response to court docket data. He has not but pleaded responsible.
Cannon was appointed to the place by Trump throughout his White Home tenure from 2017 to 2021, and her method to the categorized paperwork case drew intense scrutiny. She dismissed all fees in July based mostly on the conclusion that the lead prosecutor, particular prosecutor Jack Smith, was illegally appointed to that place.
Prosecutors are interesting Cannon’s ruling in hopes of reviving the case. In the event that they have been profitable, any trial wouldn’t happen till effectively after the Nov. 5 presidential election, wherein Republican Trump faces Democrat Kamala Harris.
Cannon was additionally lately assigned to preside over the case of a person accused of making an attempt to assassinate Trump final month at his Florida golf course.
A girl in Texas was sentenced to greater than three years in jail in February after admitting to threatening Cannon, court docket data present.
Federal judges have confronted a rise in threats as a part of an general rise in violent rhetoric directed at public officers in the US.
