A judge ordered Spencer Gear into custody, citing threats to the district attorney and judge in New York days after Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush-money case.
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The Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas where Spencer Gear appeared after being charged with making threats to public officials.
A man in Las Vegas has been charged with threatening to assault and kill federal officials, judges and state employees across several states, according to a federal indictment, including at least two people involved in the prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump.
The man, Spencer Gear, 32, was charged with 10 counts of threatening a federal official and 12 counts of transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure. Mr. Gear was taken into federal custody on Tuesday after pleading not guilty to the charges in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
In a detention order signed on Thursday, Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler cited a recording of a telephone message on June 3, “which was directed at a judge and a district attorney,” referred to in the indictment as A.B. and J.M., the initials of Alvin Bragg, the lead prosecutor, and Juan Merchan, the presiding judge in Mr. Trump’s hush-money trial in New York.
Judge Weksler said the language in the message was “of great concern to the court.”
The message was left on the Monday after a jury found Mr. Trump guilty of all 34 charges in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election through a payment to silence a porn actress who said the two had sex.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have asked Justice Merchan to overturn the verdict, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision granting him immunity from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
His lawyers have argued that the ruling, which gave the former president broad immunity for official actions taken while in the White House, invalidated at least some of the evidence presented in Manhattan, including the testimony of former White House staff members and social media posts that Mr. Trump made as president. The judge said that he would rule in September.
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Source: nytimes.com
