An elderly California man is charged with making multiple threats to assassinate President Trump on social media — saying he wanted to “blow [Trump’s] brains out,” according to the Department of Justice.
“Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction……. Many countries have constitutional law that protects free speech. Terms like free speech, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression are used interchangeably in political discourse. However, in a legal sense, the freedom of expression includes any activity of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.”
Wikipedia
Thomas Eugene Streavel, 73, was arrested Monday following a federal probe into several instances in which he “knowingly and willfully threatened to kill and inflict bodily harm on Donald Trump, who then was the President-elect of the United States,” the DOJ said in a release.
On Nov. 6 — the day after Trump claimed victory in the 2024 election — Streavel posted on Facebook that Trump “is a dead man walking for the time being until a patriot like myself blows his [expletive] brains out in the very near future,” according to the DOJ.
Then on Nov. 12, Streavel, of Yucca Valley in San Bernardino County, posted that he was “willing to make America great again and blow his [expletive] brains out.”
In another disturbing threat on Nov. 19, Steavel wrote “Let me put a bullet right between the ears of your president-elect,” which he said had become his “purpose for living.”
Then on Nov. 28 he posted that he was “praying for a successful assassination of your president elect.”
“My life’s mission is killing the worthless LOSER [expletive] and my mission starts tonight so watch yourself trump, you are a dead [expletive] and I am your assassin,” Streavel wrote on the same day, according to the DOJ.
Streavel was charged on a three-count federal jury indictment for making threats against the president-elect. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on each count.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment on Tuesday. He was released on a $10,000 bond and his trial is scheduled to begin on July 28.
“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 Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli.
“There is no place for political violence or threats of violence in the United States,” he added.
