A federal jury has indicted a Tallahassee man for threatening to kill President Donald Trump and other federal officials.
The Justice Department announced multiple charges against Diego M. Villavicencio, 36. U.S. Attorney John Heekin, the top federal prosecutor for the Northern District of Florida, announced two counts of interstate communication of threats, one count of impeding or retaliating against a federal official, and one count of threats against the President.
Villavicencio was already taken into custody and arraigned before United States Magistrate Martin Fitzpatrick in Tallahassee, according to the Justice Department. He has entered a plea of “not guilty.” He now faces up to five years in prison for each count of interstate communication of threats and threatening the President, and 10 years for the charge of impeding or retaliating against a federal official.
The press release announcing charges accused Villavicencio of threatening the President, a member of Congress, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Court records show a federal complaint was first filed against Villavicencio on Feb. 2, but the document has been sealed by the courts. A heavily redacted affidavit from a federal agent, though, reveals more information about the nature of charges.
The FBI initially became aware in September of troubling social media posts on the X account @OracleOfOmega, including the phrases “death to America” and “blowing up America.” The account has since been suspended. The account, sometimes multiple times a day, called for Trump’s death and the end of capitalism. The account was traced back to Villavicencio.
The account also drew the attention of Special Agents at the Federal Reserve’s Protective Services Unit. Those included a specific threat against an individual whose name was redacted, specifically saying the person would be shot and killed on Sept. 23, and a message that “Jerome is next.” The account also sent a direct message to a member of Congress that said “You are going to be shot and killed on Sept. 24.”
The account also responded to a comment by a member of Congress, “I’ll kill you and your family and you won’t do anything about it,” according to the affidavit. The court documents show that was in response to a post originally made by U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and former presidential candidate who had posted: “This is rich. AG Bondi has REFUSED to prosecute MULTIPLE direct death threats against me and my family.”
Of note, Swalwell recently discussed this issue during Attorney General Pam Bondi’s most recent House testimony. At a February hearing, notably held after the first complaint was filed against Villavicencio, Bondi promised all threats against sitting members of Congress would be investigated.
“I know about several of those personally involving you. I believe one has been charged publicly and there’s something I would be happy to talk to you about off camera,” Bondi said during testimony.
The FBI later linked a 4Chan account to Villavicencio and found threatening remarks and encouragement to “Shoot Donald Trump” and “Shoot Joe Biden,” the Democratic President who served before Trump’s current term.
Villavicencio was arrested on March 22.
