Man Who Claims Ties to ‘Christian American Patriot Militia’ Threatens Obama in Facebook Post
The U.S. Secret Service is aware of a man with ties to a group called the Christian American Patriots Militia who is the apparent author of a Facebook post that says the antigovernment group has the “authority” to assassinate President Obama.
“We now have authority to shoot Obama, i.e., to kill him,” Everest Wilhelmsen wrote on his Facebook page on Nov. 19 - the same day Larry Klayman and his Reclaim America Coalition held a rally across from the White House to begin a “second American Revolution.”
While Wilhelmsen’s post doesn’t specifically mention the rally or Klayman, the anti-Obama rhetoric is in the same vein.
The Secret Service reportedly became aware of Wilhelmsen’s written threat yesterday, the day before the nation marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
It’s not immediately clear whether Wilhelmsen’s public statements cross the line from free speech protected by the First Amendment to an actual threat against the president, which is a federal crime.
A spokesman for the Secret Service would not say if the Facebook post had prompted an investigation, but history has shown such threat-making gets top-drawer attention from the agency assigned to protect the president.
“That’s not something we openly discuss,” the Secret Service spokesman said in response to a query from Hatewatch.
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