A Utah man was charged on Wednesday (Jan 3) with using a police tip line to threaten to kill President Donald Trump last month when Trump was visiting the western state.
A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City indicted Travis Luke Dominguez, 33, on two counts of threatening the president and other charges, the US Department of Justice said in a written statement.
Dominguez, a resident of the Salt Lake City suburb of Midvale who was arrested on Sunday in nearby South Jordan, made his threats by posting to an online tip line for local police, Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said in an email.
On Dec 4, Dominguez wrote, “I woke up and decided going to kill the president,” adding that he expected to die at the hands of police, according to court papers.
Dominguez also was charged with making a separate threat the same day against Trump, who was visiting Utah at the time and spoke at the state capitol. In that threat, Dominguez is accused of calling Trump sexist, racist and homophobic.
Rydalch said local and federal law enforcement treat all threats seriously, but there was no evidence Dominguez travelled anywhere to carry out his threats.
Dominguez, who was in custody ahead of a scheduled court appearance on Thursday afternoon, could not be reached for comment.
The federal indictment also charged him with using the police tip line in November and December to repeatedly threaten to injure people at a movie theatre, conveying false information and threatening to harm police officers.
In all, Dominguez faces 11 criminal counts, each carrying a potential sentence of 10 years in prison, the Department of Justice said.
In 2003, Dominguez pleaded guilty to charges of abusing an emergency telephone line and vehicle burglary, Utah television station KSL-TV reported, citing court records.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Leslie Adler)
Source: Reuters/mz
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