A US government employee has been arrested for threatening to kill President Donald Trump, and using his work computer to research the alleged plot, prosecutors said.
Investigators allege Dean DelleChiaie, 35, who is employed as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor in New Hampshire, searched the internet for how to get a gun into a federal facility, and the phrase “I am going to kill Donald John Trump”.
There have been three other prosecutions for threats against Trump in the past week, including one where former FBI director James Comey was charged over an Instagram photo of seashells.
The accused is due to appear in court on Tuesday. His lawyer could not be immediately reached.
Dean DelleChiaie, a mechanical engineer for the department that oversees US airspace, is also accused of having searched for details about the families of Vice- President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, prosecutors said.
According to an affidavit, the FAA reported him to law enforcement after he asked the IT department to have his search history deleted from his work computer.
A Secret Service agent reportedly interviewed him at home on 3 February, where he allegedly admitted to conducting the searches.
“DelleChiaie expressed, in substance, that what motivated him to conduct these searches was that he was upset with the current administration based on multiple subjects, including the election, presidential pardons, and the ‘Epstein files’,” investigators state in the affidavit.
He also admitted to owning three guns, according to prosecutors.
Announcing the charges on Tuesday, prosecutors said DelleChiaie used his personal computer on 21 April to email the White House with the subject: “Contact the President.”
In the email, he allegedly wrote: “I, Dean DelleChiaie, am going to neutralize/kill you – Donald John Trump – because you decided to kill kids – and say that it was War – when in reality – it is terrorism. God knows your actions and where you belong.”
If found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 (£185,000).
There have been three other prosecutions for threats against Trump in the past week, according to the US Department of Justice, which oversees the FBI.
Last Wednesday, ex-FBI director James Comey turned himself in to police after he was charged with allegedly threatening Trump in an Instagram photo of seashells.
On Monday, a South Carolina man was arrested by the Secret Service for a threat against Trump. According to prosecutors, the man had written on his car that he was on his way to Washington “to kill the pres”.
Last week, a Florida man pleaded guilty to making threats against Trump, as well as other public officials and members of Congress.
“Criminal threats directed at public officials are becoming alarmingly more common, and this must stop now,” US attorney for the Northern District of Florida John Heekin said in a news conference to announce the guilty plea.
“We have zero-tolerance for such criminality in the Northern District of Florida and will seek maximum punishments to keep our public officials safe.”
The arrests also come less than two weeks after a gunman stormed into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington in an alleged attempt to kill Trump and other US government officials.
By BBC News
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