Federal prosecutors declare Lloyd Kent Thomas Jr. used the net alias “American patriot” to make violent threats in opposition to a South Florida federal choose after she handed down a politically charged ruling in opposition to Governor Ron DeSantis in September 2021.
“[The judge] is a useless commie traitor. All democrat terrorists are useless. You will all be shot useless on sight,” the remark reads. “All democrat commies will bleed out in each American city.”
The remark caught the eye of the U.S. Marshals Service and triggered an investigation, which led the FBI to trace down Thomas at his residence in Williamstown, West Virginia.
On December 20, a grand harm indictment was filed in opposition to Thomas on a rely of constructing an interstate menace to inflict bodily hurt, which carries a most penalty of 5 years in jail and a $250,000 nice.
The FBI affidavit redacts the title of the choose whom Thomas allegedly threatened.
However, the ruling date, underlying case description, and the YouTube video particulars listed in Thomas’ file all point out that the vitriolic remark was directed at U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom after she handed down a resolution in opposition to Governor Ron DeSantis in a case over a Florida immigration regulation.
In the September 21, 2021, ruling, Bloom blocked two sections of SB 168: Federal Immigration Enforcement, a controversial 2019 state regulation prohibiting sanctuary cities in Florida. She discovered the provisions had been handed by the Republican-led legislature with discriminatory intent and had been unconstitutional.
One of the sections required native police to “use greatest efforts to assist the enforcement of federal immigration regulation.” The different prohibited Florida cities from adopting “sanctuary insurance policies” that would impede regulation enforcement from complying with federal immigration detainers and different enforcement measures. (The resolution is on enchantment within the eleventh Circuit.)
The case was introduced by the City of South Miami alongside immigrant-rights advocates who alleged that SB 168 was preempted by federal immigration regulation and would topic “Black and brown Floridians who could also be perceived as ‘international'” to racial profiling.
Bloom held a six-day bench trial on the matter in January 2021.
Aware of the unstable political environment surrounding the problem of sanctuary cities, the U.S. Marshals Service ramped up protecting measures for the choose when the ruling got here out. The Miami-Dade Police Department additionally elevated its patrols across the choose’s residence, in response to courtroom paperwork.
In an interview on Fox News shortly after the ruling, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody criticized the choose, calling her resolution “disgusting,” accusing her of judicial activism, and saying the choice was “one of the nonsensical rulings” she had seen in her authorized profession.
Thousands of reactions poured into the remark part when Fox News posted the interview three days after the ruling.
While the feedback included a number of hateful messages, the U.S. Marshals Service keyed in on Thomas’ alleged on-line outburst due to its explicitly threatening tone, in response to an FBI affidavit. Other customers’ feedback alarmed the Marshals as properly, together with one which launched the Miami choose’s residence deal with, in response to the affidavit.
Federal prosecutors secured subpoenas for the e-mail and internet-protocol deal with related to “the useless commie” remark, permitting the FBI to find Thomas’ residence in Williamstown, West Virginia, in response to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that when regulation enforcement approached Thomas in his residence on March 2 — with a printed copy of the menace in hand — he conceded, “Yes sir, I mentioned it.”
A warrant was issued for Thomas within the Southern District of Florida final month, and he was arrested on December 7, courtroom information present.