1 of 2 | A federal grand jury declined to indict an Illinois woman who allegedly made threats against President Donald Trump. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
A Washington, D.C., federal grand jury refused to indict a woman who allegedly made threats against President Donald Trump, and it appears to be part of a trend in the district.
The woman, Natalie Rose Jones, said on Instagram that she was “willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present.” She then traveled to Washington to participate in a protest on Aug. 16 near the White House.
The U.S. Secret Service interviewed her, and she said the president was a terrorist and a Nazi, the Justice Department said.
In a statement to CBS News, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro criticized the grand jury’s refusal to indict.
“A Washington, D.C., grand jury refused to indict someone who threatened to kill the President of the United States. Her intent was clear, traveling through five states to do so. She even confirmed the same to the U.S. Secret Service. This is the essence of a politicized jury. The system here is broken on many levels. Instead of the outrage that should be engendered by a specific threat to kill the president, the grand jury in D.C. refuses to even let the judicial process begin,” Pirro said.
Her attorneys filed a motion for her release.
“A grand jury has now found no probable cause to indict Ms. Jones on the charged offenses,” her attorneys wrote.
Chief District Judge James Boasberg had ordered Jones released on home detention.
“Given that finding, the weight of the evidence is weak,” her lawyers wrote. “The government may intend to try again to obtain an indictment, but the evidence has not changed and no indictment is likely. For this reason the Court should release Ms. Jones on her personal recognizance to appear if required.”
Federal grand juries rarely decline to indict, but there have been at least six recent cases in which grand juries in Washington have done so, NBC News reported.
Prosecutors sought to charge Sean Charles Dunn, 37, with felony assault of a Customs and Border Protection officer on Aug. 10 after he allegedly threw a sandwich. Prosecutors couldn’t persuade grand jurors to indict him in the high-profile case. The Justice Department has filed a new misdemeanor charge against Dunn.
A grand jury also declined to indict Sydney Lori Reid, a woman arrested in July for trying to interfere with the transfer of an alleged gang member into custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBS News reported.
A Washington grand jury also declined to indict Alvin Summers, who allegedly swung his arms at a U.S. Park Police officer after a foot chase on Aug. 15. Prosecutors alleged Summers “grabbed” the officer with force.
“Not only have I never heard of this happening, I’ve never heard of a prosecutor who’s heard of this happening,” former federal prosecutor Brendan Ballou, who served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C., until January, told CBS News. “The office’s failure — again and again — to secure indictments suggests that the administration has absolutely destroyed its credibility with jurors,” he said.
