In the last few weeks, we have seen a disturbing uptick of reported threats against public figures, grand jurors, and judges. One of the most disturbing and disgraceful are threats against Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who will be presiding in the trial of former president Donald Trump. Abigail Jo Shry, 43, of Alvin, Tex., allegedly left an Aug. 5 voice mail at Chutkan’s chambers in which she called her a racial slur and threatened her, saying, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b—-.” That same week, there was also a sentencing in a prior case where the threat led to an attempt on the life of Trump. Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 56, has been sentenced to 262 months or roughly 22 years for mailing ricin to Trump. What makes her case even more striking is the defense raised by her lawyer.
Ferrier is a dual citizen of Canada and France. She pleaded guilty to sending a letter containing ricin in 2020 to then-President Trump and others.
In the letter, Ferrier referred to Trump as “The Ugly Tyrant Clown” and added that “[i]f it doesn’t work, I’ll find better recipe for another poison, or I might use my gun when I’ll be able to come. Enjoy! FREE REBEL SPIRIT.”
The threat of the gun became even more chilling when Ferrier was arrested after she tried to drive across the U.S.-Canada border at the Peace Bridge Border Crossing in Buffalo, New York. She had a gun, a knife, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Ferrier apparently made the ricin in her home in Quebec. When she was arrested later for refusing to leave a park after it closed, police found eight similar letters sent to law enforcement officials in charge of the Texas jail where she was held. In one letter, she instructed Trump to “[g]ive up and remove [his] application for this election.”
She was also active on social media with one posting on X asking for someone to “please shoot [T]rump in the face.”
In court, Ferrier insisted that she considers herself a “peaceful and genuinely kind person” but admitted she gets angry about problems like unfairness, abuses of power and “stupid rules.” She insisted that she is an “activist” rather than a “terrorist” who wants “to find peaceful means to achieve my goals.” That hardly jibes with the ricin and traveling arsenal.
In court, Ferrier’s defense attorney Eugene Ohm offered a curious defense that his client is “inordinately intelligent” and earned a master’s degree in engineering while raising two children as a single parent.
The homicidal-but-smart defense did not work.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich handed down the 262-month sentence.
“The homicidal-but-smart defense did not work.” And I hope that this will be the attempted defense of all the pro- Antifa, BLM, communist, transgender and other such woke ideologies. They were just so smart that we didn’t realize the wisdom of their actions – lol.
What makes her case striking is that it’s been ignored by mainstream media which only considers violence by right wingers newsworthy.
And leftists think anyone to the right of Mao is “right wing.”
Leftists think RFK Jr., Bill Maher, Elon Musk, heck even JFK are “right wing.” They think Gays Against Groomers are “right wing” Trumpists.
That is ridiculous to say the least. I consider myself to be an extreme conservative and I agree with much of what Reagan said about government. Your remark smacks of prog/left group-think.
guy walks thru the capitol…feds recommend 30 years in prison…go figure.
“This vitriolic hatred for Trump is the result of 24/7 propaganda, without factual basis, which was applied by using Rules for Radicals techniques from the day he announced in 2015.”
It’s gone down the memory hole that when Trump was just campaigning—in other words, when he hadn’t “done” anything yet that people now claim is criminal, racist, etc.—his supporters were attacked by Leftist activists, who beat them and chased them down like packs of wild dogs. It was one of the most shocking things I had ever seen and it just….didn’t make any waves at all in our national conversation. Like it was nothing, instead of the absolutely unprecedented violent political behavior that it was.
jives?
Trump is the reason for violence.
Without Trump there would be no reason for violent threats. DoJ would go back to being impartial, the FBI would not need to frame suspects, no one would have to talk about graft, and Hunter would be the name of a magazine in a red state.
So when DoJ finally drives a stake into the heart of the Wicked Witch, life will return to our prior Shangri-La of candy and lollipops and a fillet mignon in every pot.
DoJ would rediscover honesty, the FBI would forswear framing MAGA’s, J6 trespassers would be released from federal prisons, and our politicians would re embark on careers of serving the public with out enriching themselves.
Sadly, Trump the narcissist refuses to believe this nonsense, and for that he must pay!
This is why I’m against mail-in balloting. Communists like to include ricin.
What I’m about to say is not entirely fair, but some of the truest things we can say usually are a little unfair: some of the nastiest bigots I have ever encountered were Canadian women who hated American white men.
Canadian ladies, my apologies if this statement doesn’t apply to you, but you probably know who I’m talking about.
She’s got crazy eyes.
My very first thought. There are crazy people who don’t have crazy eyes, but I’ve never seen a photo of someone with crazy eyes (sanpaku) who was NOT mentally unbalanced in some way.
American Woman! Stay away form me hee …
Closely related is the ongoing misinterpretation by too many in the media of “free speech,” mainly (1) the United States is the only country with speech protection, and (2) free speech means “you can say whatever you want.” (I have heard TV commentators say that.) The specific elements vary, but no, you cannot lie under oath, make false statements to authorities, threaten public officials, defame someone, verbally harass someone, engage in false or deceptive advertising (obviously including written statements), make fraudulent misrepresentations, etc., in addition to the First Amendment principle of “reasonable time, place and manner restriction.”
Professor Turley, could you write a column on legitimate restrictions on speech?
I would have loved for Turley to have mentioned the Jan 6th rioter arrested with guns in Obama’s neighborhood the day Trump posted the address on Truth Social. He said he was “looking for a good angle for a shot.” What reason would Trump have to post the address?
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/14/1187723433/taylor-taranto-jan-6-rioter-arrested-near-obamas-home-indicted#:~:text=Television-,The%20Capitol%20rioter%20arrested%20near%20Obama's%20home%20indicted%20on%20six,firearms%20charges%20and%20four%20misdemeanors
What really makes America great is our peaceful transition of power with supreme allegiance to the constitutional rule of law.
There is never a justification for violence, but Trump brings much of this divisiveness on himself.
When politicians can’t debate the issues but instead demonize their opponents as America’s enemy – it only benefits China, North Korea, Russia and other foreign adversaries.
Although it’s technically constitutional and legal to be divisive in a destructive way, real leaders try to find common ground between their citizens – not pitting one group of Americans against another group.
With divisive politicians, this is the result!
Way to blame the victim there Staunton. I guess Democrats never use divisive language?? For you to minimize and rationalize the fact that this maniac was threatening an American president says quite a bit…ABOUT YOU.
I wonder if you ever said something so asinine about the Bernie supporter that shot Steve Scalise and tried to shoot other REPUBLICANS??? I am guessing no.
Regarding the Left-wing terrorist James Hutchinson who shot Steve Scalise, it’s important to note that Hutchinson shot FIVE people that day, and that one young man he shot was wounded multiple times and it was a miracle that he survived at all. Scalise still suffers physical limitations and pain from having been shot through the pelvis. And the only reason that more people weren’t killed is that Capitol Police officers were present and immediately engaged the shooter, pinning him down in a dugout so that he wasn’t able to continue shooting.
This comment should be directed to aAl Gore.
I seem to recall that Gerald Ford, who had (at least) two assassination attempts made against him, and Ronald Reagan, who took a bullet to the lung and whose press secretary was disabled, were famous for being divisive. /sarc. Never, ever attempt to blame the victim of actual or planned violence, or lionize perpetrators. Don’t like Trump? Fine. Work him into every discussion, no matter how irrelevant, like every other anti-Trump thread lurker does. Just don’t excuse or minimize this type of activity.
steve scalise
LOL. Nothing but Peace prior to Trump losing to biden, right?
That pussy hat has cook your brain? Resist reality.
So when a national election as well as midterms are stolen we’re supposed to grin and bear it ?
I’m not a defense attorney, so I may be wrong, but I thought that “conditional threats” were not legally sufficient to be charged. Thus leaving a voicemail from 2,000 miles away that “If Trump doesn’t win in 2024…” suggests there’s no real present threat, only the possibility of a future threat based on what may take place in the 2024 election.
I’ll have to admit, this made me laugh.
Sounds like some of the logic used in defenses I have read/heard for Trump himself in his indictments………
Maybe we need Tom Cruise on the case? 🙂
“Inordinately intelligent”. Almost but not quite an oxymoron. I suspect that there may be mental health issues involved. All that intelligence just tipped her over the edge. There are many engineers out there and in what discipline of engineering did she receive this masters degree. We see many bridges, roadways, and buildings collapse and planes fall from the sky and such and they were all built by engineers. So that degree means virtually nothing. Intelligence without judgement, emotional stability and impulse control means nothing.
I think her actions obviously speak louder than her degree and shows stupidity of unusual proportions. Her judgement and awareness of the world around her is also highly suspect and her thought processes and judgement show almost nothing about what engineering actually teaches.
Canadians are often pictured as very peace loving and kind and for the most part they are but their armed forces are not. They were shock troops for the British in WW1 And WW2 and in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan their snipers were legendary. At one time, quite recently, 3 of the 5 longest kill shots in sniper history were held by Canadiens. Please have some respect for our Canadien neighbors, even if a few have been too deep in the forest. We have our own variety of the same group.
Good point, GEB. As a matter of public safety, they should publish what bridges she worked on.
Just kidding–or maybe I’m not 😉
Goes to show, you can have a master’s degree in engineering and still be a loon.
She worked for Pratt and Whitney, an aircraft engine manufacturer, in Quebec. Before that she worked for Airbus. She specializes in computer systems for airplanes, and reportedly received an A+ in every class she ever took. We’re lucky she was only mad at Trump and the sheriff in Texas who had her deported, not the public in general.
There are nut jobs everywhere, see the wiffer sniffer column.
““peaceful and genuinely kind person” but admitted she gets angry about problems like unfairness, abuses of power and “stupid rules.” She insisted that she is an “activist” rather than a “terrorist” who wants “to find peaceful means to achieve my goals.” That hardly jives with the ricin and traveling arsenal.”
More like mentally unstable. People shoot off their mouths all the time with stupid stuff, but it takes a special kind of mental to cook up some ricin with intent to send them and then send them.
She got a gun? In Canada?
You retake the Swamp one critter at a time….so why are the Democrats in particular and never-Trumpers so afraid of Trump?
Jives?… You meant “jibes.”
“In court, Ferrier’s defense attorney Eugene Ohm offered a curious defense that his client is “inordinately intelligent” …”
No doubt she’s one of the most brilliant halfwits ever to obtain an international lifetime membership to Moron’s Anonymous, but unfortunately for her she’s anonymous no more.
Dennis
“Democrats also support the use of force–but for quite different reasons–” —-Dennis
“The only guy who is inviting violence these days is DJT!” —-Dennis
Both of these statements were in a single post.
Which one is the lie?
What’s crazy is she is a Canadian.
Yep, and she gonna get more than a butt sniffin’ in that prison.
Headline doesn’t match the story.
Sorry, the headlined story is below the Alvin woman’s threat to the judge.
This vitriolic hatred for Trump is the result of 24/7 propaganda, without factual basis, which was applied by using Rules for Radicals techniques from the day he announced in 2015. I did not vote for him in 2016. But stepped back and watched the smear campaign against him that was, and is relentless. It’s odd that everything they charge him with has been done by one of their own, be it Biden, Clinton, or Obama. None of them are ever charged and they receive cover from the DOJ, the FBI, lawyers, stacked pro juries and prosecutors, while everything against Trump is stacked against him. None of them get a fair trial. Everything is stacked against Trump, and everything is covered up for Biden, Clinton, and Obama.
This is what happens when u take on the swamp. Trumps biggest mistake was being naive enough to think he could.
He has said he has learned from his first term. His second term will be different.
Having 4 years to look back upon his first term and to ponder all the things that he wished he had done differently is actually a precious gift. Trump will be able to leverage that wisdom in the most positive way during his second term….a luxury no other president has had excepting Grover Cleveland. I look forward to voting for Trump again….for the third time, and seeing him WIN again….also for the Third Time. Think about it.