Yucca Valley man charged with threatening to kill President Trump
Jesus Reyes
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – A Yucca Valley man has been charged with threatening to assassinate then-President-elect Donald Trump after last year’s election, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
Thomas Eugene Streavel, 73, of Yucca Valley, was arrested Monday and charged with three counts of making threats against the President-elect, the DOJ confirmed.
Streavel was arraigned in United States District Court in Riverside on Tuesday where he pleaded not guilty to all charges. A July 28 trial date was scheduled and a federal magistrate judge ordered him released on $10,000 bond.
According to the DOJ, if convicted, Streavel would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count.
“This defendant is charged with threatening the life of our President – a man who has already survived two deranged attempts on his life,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The Department of Justice takes these threats with the utmost seriousness and will prosecute this crime to the fullest extent of the law.”
“The type of rhetoric and threats made by this defendant are similar to those that led to an attempt on the President’s life last year,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “There is no place for political violence or threats of violence in the United States. We will not hesitate to arrest and charge others who engage in similar criminal conduct.”
According to the indictment that a federal grand jury returned on May 29 and was unsealed Tuesday, Streavel used his Facebook account before the 2024 U.S. presidential election to post multiple messages expressing his desire to harm or have others harm President Trump.
After the 2024 presidential election, Streavel allegedly continued using Facebook to post about assassinating President Trump. For example, on November 6, 2024 – the day after the election – Streavel posted, “[T]rump is a dead man walking for the time being until a patriot like myself blows his [expletive] brains out in the very near future.
The indictment alleges several instances in which Streavel knowingly and willfully threatened to kill and inflict bodily harm on Donald Trump, who then was the President-elect of the United States.
On November 12, 2024, Streavel posted a message on Facebook that read, in part, that he was “willing to make America great again and blow his [expletive] brains out.”
On November 19, 2024, Streavel posted a Facebook message that read, in part, “Let me put a bullet right between the ears of your president-elect…That’s my purpose for living.”
On November 28, 2024, Streavel wrote on Facebook, “I’m praying for a successful assassination of your president-elect” and “My life’s mission is killing the worthless LOSER [expletive] and my mission starts tonight so watch yourself trump [sic], you are a dead [expletive] and I am your assassin.”