Woman arrested for allegedly threatening judge in Mar-a-Lago documents case

By CNN Newsource

Published September 12, 2022 2:05 PM

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

A Texas woman who allegedly left a series of threatening messages on the voicemail of a federal judge overseeing one of former President Donald Trump’s legal fights in Florida was arrested last week, according to court documents.

Tiffani Shea Gish, of Houston, left three voicemails for Aileen Cannon, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida who was nominated by Trump in 2020, according to court documents. Cannon is handling the former President’s request for a special master to review documents and other items the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago last month.

In the voicemails, Gish threatened to have Cannon assassinated in front of her family for “helping” the former president, court documents say.

“Donald Trump has been disqualified long ago, and he’s marked for assassination. You’re helping him, ma’am,” Gish allegedly said one of the voicemails.

“He’s marked for assassination and so are you,” she said, according to court documents, telling Cannon to “stand the f*ck down or get shot.”

In other messages, Gish, who identified herself on the messages as “Evelyn Salt,” said that she was “in charge of nuclear for the United States Government” and claimed that Trump had some responsibility for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Gish is facing two federal charges, including influencing a federal official by threat and interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure. She has not yet entered a formal plea, and a lawyer for Gish did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Investigators traced Gish’s cell phone number and interviewed her through the window of her home in Houston, and she admitted to having left the voicemails, according to court documents.

The US Secret Service was aware of previous threats Gish had made towards Trump, prosecutors say.

Federal officials have seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats since the search at Mar-a-Lago last month, CNN has reported. Violent threats have surfaced online against Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the biography and contact information of the federal magistrate judge who signed the Mar-a-Lago search warrant had to be wiped from a Florida court’s website due to threats.

FBI officials also have reported an “unprecedented” number of threats and that individual agents involved in the search have faced doxxing attempts, law enforcement sources told CNN.