Man charged with threat to murder Muslim US congresswoman
A man from the US state of New York has been arrested and charged with threatening to murder Ilhan Omar, the newly elected member of Congress who is a Muslim, US federal prosecutors said.
Patrick Carlineo Jr. of Addison, New York, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, the US Department of Justice said on Friday in a statement.
Prosecutors said Carlineo, 55, spoke by telephone with one of Omar’s staff members on March 21 and asked the employee: “Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she’s a (expletive) terrorist. I’ll put a bullet in her (expletive) skull.”
The threat was referred to the US Capitol Police who launched a probe in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Justice Department said.
The FBI said in a criminal complaint that Carlineo said "he loves the president and that he hates radical Muslims in our government," the criminal complaint says.
In February, Omar said US President Donald Trump has “trafficked in hate your whole life.”
Omar is one of the first two Muslim women to serve in the US House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
The 37-year-old lawmaker was born to a family of Somali refugees and represents Minneapolis, Minnesota, a district with a large Somali population.
Omar has sparked a political firestorm on Capitol Hill with comments suggesting supporters of Israel have dual allegiances.
She has repeatedly criticized Israel and the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts great influence in US politics.
Her legitimate criticism of Israel has been deemed anti-Semitic by some colleagues and exposed deep fault lines among Democrats.
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