A New York man was charged on Monday, January 10 with threatening to kill, kidnap, and inflict bodily harm on former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The defendant, Thomas Welnicki, 72, of Rockaway Beach, threatened to do “everything I can” to ensure Trump’s death, and once inquired about Secret Service protection for former presidents and their children, Prosecutors said .
He even once referred to Trump as “Hitler.”
The case came as Trump continues to press claims that widespread voting fraud caused him to lose re-election to Democrat Joe Biden.
A group of Trump supporters assaulted the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn the election results and Welnicki was unhappy that Trump didn’t want to concede defeat.
Prosecutors said Welnicki expressed interest in Trump’s death between July 2020 and December 2021, during and after Trump’s presidency, in several voluntary communications with U.S. Capitol Police and the Secret Service.
Welnicki allegedly told Capitol Police in a July 2020 interview that if Trump lost the election and refused to step down, he would “acquire weapons” and “take him down.”
Prosecutors said Welnicki called the Secret Service around Jan. 4, 2021, threatening to kill Trump and 12 unnamed congressional supporters, and referring to a $350,000 bounty.
“I will do anything I can to take out (Trump) and his 12 monkeys,” Welnicki was quoted as saying. “Tomorrow (Trump) will be in Georgia, maybe I will.”
Trump visited Georgia on that same day to campaign for two incumbent Republican senators who sought unsuccessfully to win re-election and keep the U.S. Senate under Republican control.
Welnicki also allegedly told the Secret Service on Dec. 2, 2021, that “the new Civil war could break out and taking up arms against the government is justified when ballots don’t matter.”
