Overview
- U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison in Houston sentenced Abigail Jo Shry to 27 months in prison for a 2023 voicemail threat to Judge Tanya Chutkan.
- Prosecutors said Shry used a racist slur and threatened to kill Chutkan, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, other Democrats, and members of the LGBTQ community.
- Charging documents quoted Shry saying, "If Trump doesn't get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, bitch."
- Shry pleaded guilty in November 2024 to transmitting an interstate threat, acknowledging she made the call while telling investigators she had no plans to carry it out.
- The threat came days after Jack Smith’s election-subversion case against President Donald Trump was unsealed, a case later dismissed at prosecutors’ request, as reports show a surge in threats to federal judges including a swatting incident targeting Chutkan.