The life of President-elect Donald Trump was reportedly threatened earlier in November, prompting the U.S. Secret Service to investigate.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ that a Greene County, Ohio, man was investigated. He told Secret Service agents that it was “just a joke,” the report said.
The man’s identity was not revealed, but the report said the man’s first name is Micah. He posted a picture on Nov. 14 with a message saying “kill Trump.”
“Agents asked the man if he was serious about the threat,” TMZ said. “He responded, ‘Not unless he starts going door-to-door rounding up people like he says.’”
Micah, speaking with TMZ, said that the agents were “satisfied” with what he told them and left after determining he wasn’t “serious.”
Following Trump’s win, there were a flood of people on social media making threats toward the president-elect.
Two weeks ago, a Secret Service source told the New York Post that agents would investigate any social media threats they deem credible. Indirect threats generally are not prosecuted, the source said.
Days before the election, Trump was rushed off the stage in Reno, Nevada, by Secret Service agents when there was a commotion in the crowd at one of his rallies. Someone shouted that a man had a gun, prompting the swift response.
According to U.S. Code 871, “Threats against President and successors to the Presidency,” people who deliver via “letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States ... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
