Woman is accused of threatening judge
A Houston woman with a history of threats against public figures and of mental illness last week was charged with threatening the federal judge presiding over the dispute over secret documents between the FBI and former President Donald Trump.
Tiffani Shea Gish, 49, was accused of threatening to kidnap or injure U.S District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, according to a complaint filed by the FBI on Sept. 6 in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Cannon is the judge presiding over a lawsuit filed by Trump against the U.S. government after the Aug. 8 FBI raid at his Florida home, where agents searched for government documents, including classified material. Cannon also is the judge who ordered a special master be appointed to review the documents taken from Mara-Lago be reviewed before the FBI could continue its criminal investigation into the matter.
Gish is accused of leaving three threatening voicemails on Cannon’s office phone on Sept. 1.
In the messages, which were transcribed in the FBI’s complaint, Gish identified herself as “Evelyn Salt” — the name of a character from a 2010 Angelina Jolie movie — and said she was “in charge of nuclear for the United States Government,” according to the complaint.
Gish called herself “Trump’s hitman,” and said that Trump himself was “marked for assassination” and threatened to have Cannon shot and to bomb her house, according to the complaint.
Cannon shared the voicemails with federal agents, who matched the phone number that left the voicemails with Gish’s public Facebook page. The Facebook page had “recent posts that mirror the language in the voicemails,” according to the complaint.
FBI agents interviewed Gish on Sept. 4. During the interview, Gish said she left the voicemails for Cannon, according to the complaint. She was arrested on Sept. 6 and remained in custody as of Monday, according to court records.
According to court documents, Gish previously had made threats against Trump, Hillary Clinton and a governor of Arizona. She previously was convicted of assault and disorderly conduct and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is a “borderline schizophrenic,” according to court documents.
During a detention hearing last week, Gish’s attorney argued that she hadn’t carried out her threats. However, Magistrate Judge Peter Bray wrote he considered the threats themselves to be harmful and ordered Gish to remain in custody.
“Threats such as these are designed to place the victim in fear and cause distress and apprehension,” Bray wrote. “These things are harmful even if the defendant had no subjective intent to carry out the threats.”
Gish is set to appear at a competency examination hearing on Sept. 21, according to court records.