Man charged for threats against AOC
An Ohio man was charged with making threats against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, authorities say, after he wrote on Facebook that the New York Democrat “should be shot.”
Timothy James Ireland Jr., 41, was indicted in Toledo for making interstate threats in addition to separate counts of being a felon and fugitive in possession of a firearm, the U. S. attorney’s office in the Northern District of Ohio announced Friday. Officials say a concerned citizen reached out to U. S. Capitol Police July 23 to warn of the Facebook post, which they later confirmed was written by Ireland.
“She should be shot. Can’t fire me, my employer would load the gun for me,” Ireland wrote, according to police.
On Aug. 2, Capitol Police called Ireland after finding his phone number in public records. The man took full responsibility for the statement while speaking with police, adding he was “very proud” of his work, according to a criminal complaint. Ireland also admitted to having firearms that he “always carries concealed,” police say.
Judges could lose union
The Justice Department moved Friday to potentially decertify the union that represents federal immigration judges, a spokesman said, a maneuver that could silence an organization that has been critical of some aspects of the Trump administration’s overhaul of immigration enforcement.
The department filed a petition asking the U. S. Federal Labor Relations Authority to examine whether it should revoke the certification of the National Association of Immigration Judges because, a Justice Department spokesman said, its members are “management officials” under the law.
Judge Ashley Tabaddor, the association’s president, said she thinks the petition’s intent is to “disband and destroy the union,” which has publicly pushed for judges to have more independence and sparred with the Justice Department over a quota system it imposed.
DOJ official departs
The Justice Department official at the center of the push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census has left the department, a person familiar with the decision confirmed Friday.
John Gore, who served as the Civil Rights Division’s principal assistant attorney general, authored a letter on enforcement of the Voting Rights Act that the Commerce Department used to justify adding a citizenship question.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts later wrote in a 5- 4 opinion blocking the citizenship question that the rationale provided by the government was “contrived” and a “distraction” in the case.
3D- gun creator charged
Cody Wilson, the Austin, Texas, man who sparked a nationwide legal fight over the constitutionality of firearms made with a 3D printer, pleaded guilty Friday in connection with having sex with an underage 16- year- old girl last year.
Wilson, through a tentative plea agreement his lawyers reached with Travis County prosecutors, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of injury to a child in exchange for a recommended sentence that will keep him out of prison but require him to register as a sex offender for seven years while he serves deferred adjudication probation.