ASSASSINS ABOUND: Trump impersonator pleads guilty to death threats on Dem Congressman & staff
A man pleaded guilty in court Friday to accusations that he had made contact with Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell’s office and communicated threats. The accused, Joshua Hall, also has a history of impersonating various members of the Trump family.
On the same day that an assailant was charged with entering the home of Nancy Pelosi and attacking her elderly husband, Hall pled guilty to violent threats against another House Representative and three members of his staff.
The charge was making interstate communications with a threat to injure, and the sentence, which will come in December, could be up to five years in prison. Hall is accused of threatening to kill at least three staffers and to “beat the s**t” out of Swalwell — all while boasting of his AR-15 collection.
He also has a history of strange obsession with the Trump family and Q-anon, including previously pleading guilty to wire fraud after impersonating the former president’s brother on social media in order to boost a fake political organization and solicit donations which he would keep for himself.
He’s also used social media to pretend to be other Trump family members, including Barron, under whose name he declared, “Q is real.”
From PennLive:
“Hall, 22…admitted to calling Swalwell’s West Coast office from Yonkers on Aug. 29 and saying he would find and ‘beat the s—t out of’ him…According to [District Attorney Damian] Williams’ office, Hall told members of Swalwell’s staff that he ‘had a lot of AR-15s’ and wanted to shoot the Congressman.”
His history of Trump obsession and impersonation, as well as Q-anon support, only emphasizes the way extremism and violence have been intertwined with these entities.
According to the Washington Post, Hall made accounts impersonating not only the former president’s brother, Robert Trump, and his youngest son, Barron (a minor), but two of his sisters (the then-president actually retweeted this account).
He solicited donations, claiming to represent such groups as “Gay Voices for Trump,” boosting them through his fake accounts — for instance, falsely giving the appearance that Robert Trump tweeted, “Josh is doing great work so please give him a follow and support him!”
He claims he was “just trying to rally MAGA supporters and have fun,” and that he didn’t actually benefit from the thousands of dollars in donations that rolled in.
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
