CHICAGO (CN) — Chicagoland resident Tracy Marie Fiorenza went before a federal magistrate Monday amid charges of threatening the lives of Donald Trump and his 17-year-old son Barron this summer.
Authorities arrested Fiorenza, 41, around 8:10 a.m. Monday morning and by 3 p.m. she was sitting before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cummings. Her first appearance in court was a removal hearing to determine if, and under what circumstances, she would be moved to the U.S. Court District of Southern Florida, where U.S. attorneys filed their complaint against her on Aug. 9.
"You've been arrested because certain charges have been filed against you in the Southern District of Florida," Cummings told Fiorenza, sitting at a court bench in a green, skull-emblazoned tank top as U.S. marshals looked on.
The removal hearing ended Monday without a definitive answer to where Fiorenza's case would be held, though for now she remains in federal custody. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Rosenbloom demurred when Cummings asked if there was any way Fiorenza could remain in Chicago for her case, saying prosecutors needed more time to consider the question. Her next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
The government's case against Fiorenza consists of a single charge of threatening to kill or injure another person in interstate commerce. In its five-page complaint, the government says Fiorenza sent two threatening messages to a school in Florida's Palm Beach County this past May and June. Though the complaint does not specify which school, it is possibly the private Oxbridge Academy where Barron has been enrolled since 2021.
Prosecutors say Fiorenza sent an email stating “I will state that I will shoot Donald Trump Sr. AND Barron Trump straight in the face at any opportunity that I get!” to the school's headmaster in an email on May 21. She followed this up with another email to the headmaster on June 5, according to the complaint, stating "I am going to slam a bullet in Baron Trump's (sic) head with his father IN SELF DEFENSE!"
Courthouse News was unable to reach Oxbridge Academy to confirm whether it was the school Fiorenza contacted.
Federal prosecutors also say Fiorenza consented to an interview with the Chicago field office of the U.S. Secret Service on June 14, during which she admitted to sending the emails from her home in the Chicago suburb of Plainfield.
Despite the supposed admission, Fiorenza has not yet entered a formal plea to the charge. South Florida Assistant U.S. Attorney John McMillan, who is listed as the government's primary attorney in the case, declined to comment, though his North Illinois counterpart Rosenbloom stated in court Monday that she could face a maximum of five years imprisonment as well as a maximum $250,000 fine if convicted. As her messages included threats to a minor, Rosenbloom said the government wants to move her to Florida while under federal custody rather than on her own recognizance.
A Facebook page seemingly affiliated with Fiorenza featured posts as recently as Sunday that called for the arrest of the "Trump family pedophile ring," with multiple mentions of Oxbridge Academy, "psycho-electronic weapon effects" on the human body and the "The Rothschild Illuminati Dynasty."
Incidents of political and ideological violence — and conspiracy theories like those espoused by QAnon — have risen in the U.S. over the last decade amid multiple environmental, social, economic and infrastructural crises that have shaken popular confidence in the U.S. government, the media and other institutions. Eighteen percent of American respondents to a September 2022 Ipsos poll, including 22% of Democrats, 14% of Republicans and 13% of Independents, said they believe that political violence is acceptable.
A separate survey published by The Guardian last month found that Americans' responses to questions of political violence were more complex, especially regarding Trump: some 11.6% of respondents said they believe the use of force would be justified to prevent Trump becoming president again, while 7% said they would support the use of force to prevent his prosecution.
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