Florida Man Charged in Racist Threats Against Cory Booker and Rashida Tlaib
Federal officials charged a Florida man on Friday with leaving threatening phone messages laced with racist slurs at the offices of Senator Cory Booker and two House members, including Representative Rashida Tlaib.
The man, John J. Kless, 49, made three phone calls within 30 minutes, starting at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, according to court records.
Mr. Kless, of Tamarac, Fla., about 15 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, was charged with interstate transmission of threats, according to court papers.
In the first call, to the office of Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who is running for president, Mr. Kless said that “the day you come after our guns” would be the day “you’ll be dead,” court papers said.
About nine minutes later, in a voice mail message to the office of Ms. Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, he began with, “Hey, Taliban.”
Mr. Kless, referring to Representative Ilhan Omar, the freshman Democrat from Minnesota and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, then said, “Tell your Taliban friend” to stay silent about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, court records said.
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Mr. Kless said in the voice mail to Ms. Tlaib’s office that “this ain’t Trump’s fault,” court records said, adding, “It’s all your people’s fault.”
Mr. Kless said that “the day when the bell tolls” and “this country comes to a war, there will be no more threats,” court records said.
He also said, “There’s people like me out there, millions and millions of us, who hate you” for the 2001 attacks.
Mr. Kless’s arrest came after a 55-year-old New York man was charged this month with threatening Ms. Omar.
Federal agents charged that man, Patrick W. Carlineo Jr., after he reportedly called her office, described her as “a terrorist” and promised, in an expletive-laden threat, to “put a bullet in her skull.”
In the message left at Mr. Booker’s office on Tuesday, Mr. Kless referred to the senator, a Democrat from New Jersey who is running for president, as a “disgrace.”
“Don’t you worry, you government officials will be in the graves” where they belong, he said, according to court records.
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Mr. Kless was involved in making harassing calls to Ms. Pelosi’s office in Washington in February, according to court papers.
It was not immediately clear what actions, if any, were taken by law enforcement in that case.
“This early 2019 case included voice messages by Kless concerning taking away his guns, abortion, illegal immigration and Muslims in Congress,” Agent Evans wrote.
Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos, special counsel to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, said one gun was seized from a backpack of Mr. Kless’s and others from a gun safe at his home.
Ammunition was also recovered. Information about the kinds of weapons was not immediately available.
United States Magistrate Judge Barry S. Seltzer ordered Friday that bond be set at $25,000.
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