Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee calls threat of attack on her, Chutkan ‘chilling’

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said Saturday that the recent threat made against her and the federal judge overseeing former President Trump’s 2020 election case is “chilling.” 

“I would simply say it’s chilling for your family,” Jackson Lee said in an interview on CNN. “But I thank law enforcement, who has really paid attention to this.” 

A Texas woman, Abigail Jo Shry, was charged with making a threatening call to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s chambers earlier this month, in which she called the judge a racial slur and threatened to kill her and Jackson Lee, according to court documents.

“You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” Shry allegedly said. “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly.”

Shry’s call came just days after Trump was indicted on federal charges over his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election and Chutkan was assigned to his case. The former president has repeatedly attacked the federal judge in the weeks since the initial indictment. 

Jackson Lee, who announced in March that she was running for Houston mayor, said Saturday that she has “never seen this kind of outside attack” on the judiciary before.

“The former president called her biased and unfair and gave the inference that she would not be handling his case on four counts of conspiracy under the special counsel fairly,” Jackson Lee said.

“And what does that do?” she continued. “Whether someone is sitting on their couch drinking, or however they might be motivated or others might be motivated, they’ve been given a signal that she is wrong and she is not right.” 

The Texas Democrat argued that the “temperature needs to be brought down” in the country.

“The former president needs to be actively engaged in stopping the hysteria and egging people on, provoking them to do things that are against the Constitution and the order of this nation,” she added. “Law and order has to prevail, not only for us, but for him.”