Prosecutors in Illinois said on Wednesday that they had charged a man with threatening to kill President Trump on social media, even after federal agents spoke with him about the threatening language he posted online.
Derek S. Lopez, 27, of El Paso, Ill., posted threats against Mr. Trump on at least two social media accounts, Special Agent Jerome Smith of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in an affidavit. Mr. Smith was among the F.B.I. agents who interviewed Mr. Lopez in early October, and warned him of the differences between First Amendment-protected speech and threats, according to the affidavit.
The F.B.I. learned of Mr. Lopez’s online statements in mid-September from an anonymous tip through the National Threats Operation Center, Mr. Smith wrote.
Mr. Lopez was arrested on Tuesday, the F.B.I. said on Wednesday. If convicted, Mr. Lopez could serve as many as five years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois said in a statement on Wednesday.
The security of politicians has been in the spotlight after two assassination attempts on Mr. Trump last year, along with recent high-profile attacks on figures from both major parties. Earlier this year, Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota, was killed in what officials described as a political assassination. And last month, Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Mr. Trump’s ally, was fatally shot at a university campus in Utah.
Mr. Lopez defended his online activity to F.B.I. agents as performance art, according to the affidavit, and also wrote on Instagram that he believed his posts were protected by the First Amendment. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
In one of his social media posts, as described in the affidavit and prefaced with “my free speech is this,” he wrote that he had killed Mr. Kirk. (Tyler Robinson of Utah was arrested and charged in the killing of Mr. Kirk last month.)
One post from Saturday, which was still visible to the public, included a video of a man pointing a gun, layered under an illustration of Mr. Trump with a target on his forehead and several images of Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director. Another account named in the affidavit was private.
According to the affidavit, Mr. Lopez posted in the comments of a Secret Service post on Instagram that with the account inactive during the government shutdown, “this is the perfect time to kill the president! The Secret Service is down!” And he wrote in a post on X on Oct. 27 that “I’m gonna kill Donald Trump,” according to the affidavit.
Mr. Lopez was a graduate student and teaching assistant at Illinois State University, according to a statement issued by the university two weeks ago, when Mr. Lopez was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and damaging property, unrelated to the threats.
In an Instagram post, Mr. Lopez said he had flipped over a table where members of Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization founded by Mr. Kirk, were promoting their activities on campus.
After the F.B.I. interview with Mr. Smith and others, Mr. Lopez created a parody account on X, in which he posted as “Agent Smith,” according to the affidavit.
Seamus Hughes contributed reporting.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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