Abigail Jo Shry appears in a police booking photo released by the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A Texas woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday after being charged with threatening to kill people, including the federal judge who oversaw the 2020 criminal case against Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
Abigail Jo Shry of Alvin, Texas, has pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston to a charge related to threats stemming from a voicemail. Prosecutors said she left for the chambers of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., threatening to kill her and others.
She will be sentenced on January 31. Shry’s attorney declined to comment.
Shry was indicted last year amid a wave of threats against judges nationally, as documented in a Reuters investigation. The number of serious threats against federal judges increased from 224 in fiscal 2021 to 457 in fiscal 2021, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Authorities said Shry used a racial slur in her voicemail to address Chutkan, who is Black, and threatened to kill anyone who went after Trump, who was charged with conspiring to obstruct vote collection and certification after his defeat against Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 presidential election.
Shry also threatened in the voicemail to kill U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who later died in July 2024 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, other Democrats and members of the LGBTQ community said.
She made her call on August 5, 2023, just days after special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case was unsealed and assigned to Chutkan, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama.
Trump and his allies’ attempt to overturn Biden’s victory culminated in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol following a fiery speech by the then-president near the White House. Trump has denied the allegations.
Chutkan last week approved a request from Smith to put the case on hold while prosecutors assess its future after Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election. Justice Department policy prohibits the prosecution of a sitting president.
Shry’s call wasn’t the only threat Chutkan faced while overseeing Trump’s case. In January, she was the victim of an apparent “swatting” call that falsely reported a shooting at her home, prompting a police response.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Lisa Shumaker)
