Federal prosecutors in Kansas have charged a 24-year-old Clearwater man with threatening President Donald Trump, saying he threatened on Facebook to shoot the president and claimed to have already mapped out the rooftops around the site of Trump's speech.
Jaden J. Read was charged Saturday with making threats against the president and was arrested the same day, two days before Trump's Monday visit to the Wichita area, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas. The office brought the case in a criminal complaint, and Read is being held in federal custody until a detention hearing.
The investigation began with a Crime Stoppers tip on Oct. 15 that led authorities to comments beneath a KAKE News Facebook article about the trip, prosecutors said. "Let's shoot Trump honestly, where's our shooter? I'm tired of living this money life," one comment read. Read then allegedly added a second comment on the same article claiming he had ammunition and saying he would kill the president, KWCH 12 News reported.
Investigators then found two more comments under a separate KWCH 12 News article about the visit. In one, Read allegedly asked whether the president could be shot in Kansas and said he would do it himself. A minute later, he wrote that he knew where the speech would be and had "already mapped out roofs around" it, the U.S. attorney's office said.
"Political violence and threats of political violence will not be tolerated," U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said in a statement Monday. He added that the First Amendment allows robust disagreement within limits and cautioned people to stay within the bounds of constitutionally protected speech.
The visit went ahead. Trump spoke for more than an hour and a half on Monday night at Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, the Associated Press reported, at a campaign rally where he appeared with Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces a tough challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton.
A criminal complaint is an accusation, not a finding of guilt, and Read is presumed innocent unless the government proves its case in court. The reports did not include a response from Read or from a lawyer representing him.