Texas woman who threatened judge overseeing Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case sentenced to three years in prison

(CNN) — A Houston woman who left a series of threatening voicemail messages for a federal judge overseeing one of former President Donald Trump’s legal fights in Florida has been sentenced to serve 37 months in federal prison for “using interstate communications to threat, kidnap or injure,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Friday.

In the voicemails, Tiffani Shea Gish threatened to have US District Judge Aileen Cannon assassinated in front of her family for “helping” the former president, as CNN previously reported. Cannon handled the former president’s request for a special master to review documents and other items the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.

“Donald Trump has been disqualified long ago, and he’s marked for assassination. You’re helping him, ma’am,” Gish allegedly said in one of the voicemails.

CNN has reached out to Gish’s public defender for comment, but has not heard back as of Saturday morning.

Gish pleaded guilty November 9, 2023, court records show.

Following her prison sentence, US District Judge David Hittner ordered Gish to serve three years of supervised release, the sentencing order reads. According to the release, Hittner noted that he was concerned “for the safety of the public and protecting the judiciary” when handing down the sentence.

“Holding Tiffani Gish accountable for her threats to assassinate a federal judge sends a strong message that we have no tolerance for those — who often hide behind a far-off keyboard or phone line — seeking to undermine our democratic institutions by threatening the safety of the people who help those same institutions thrive,” US Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in the release.

Gish remains in custody pending her transfer to a US Bureau of Prisons facility, which has yet to be determined, the release said.

Gish was arrested in September 2022 for her series of threatening messages. Investigators traced Gish’s cell phone number and interviewed her through the window of her home in Houston, and she admitted to having left the voicemails.

Federal officials have seen a dramatic increase in threats since the search at Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Violent threats surfaced online against US Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the biography and contact information of the federal magistrate judge who signed the Mar-a-Lago search warrant had to be wiped from a Florida court’s website due to threats.

Gish’s case is just one of a number involving individuals threatening judges and other people involved in the numerous criminal charges the former president is facing.

In another instance, a Texas woman was charged in August with threatening in a voicemail to kill the federal judge overseeing Trump’s criminal case in Washington, DC, over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Abigail Jo Shry called the chambers of Judge Tanya Chutkan and left a voicemail message threatening to “kill anyone who went after former President Trump” and also allegedly included racist comments against Chutkan, who is Black.

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