“Unnecessary & Excessive” Worldcoin Ordered to Halt Operations in Hong Kong Over Privacy Violations

A Texas man used to be charged Thursday with threatening a federal agent interestingly enthralling with the Hunter Biden investigation and vowing that agents would be thrown in detention heart after a brand fresh president is elected.

Names are likely to be now not spelled out in the prison grievance, however the FBI agent who used to be threatened “used to be known to were taking into account an investigation into a notebook computer belonging to H.B.,” and the threatening name used to be made Tuesday after “H.B.” used to be convicted in reference to a 2018 gun aquire, the U.S. Attorney’s Place of work for the Northern District of Texas talked about.

Timothy Muller, 43, used to be arrested Thursday morning out of doors his Fort Worth dwelling and is charged with interstate threatening communications and influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal genuine, the U.S. attorney’s plot of job talked about.

He known as the FBI agent, whose name came out in media reports at some level of Hunter Biden’s trial, which led to a conviction, at 5:03 p.m. the day the verdict in Biden’s case used to be announced, prosecutors talked about.

“It’s doubtless you’ll well perchance also bustle, however it is doubtless you’ll well even’t [expletive] hide,” Muller talked about in a voicemail that also integrated allegations of child pornography and abuse, the prosecutor’s plot of job talked about in a statement. The president’s son has never been charged with such crimes.

A jury in Delaware convicted Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, on three federal gun counts Tuesday connected to his buying and owning a handgun when he used to be hooked on illegal treatment.

Muller in the voicemail also interestingly referred to inaccurate claims by worn President Donald Trump that the 2020 election used to be stolen as segment of threats to the agent, per the U.S. attorney’s plot of job.

“So right here’s how it’s gonna traipse: [T’s] gonna fetch the re-election, and then we’re gonna [expletive] combat thru the FBI and factual start throwing you [expletive]s in detention heart,” Muller talked about, per the U.S. attorney’s plot of job statement. “Or, it is doubtless you’ll well even blueprint shut one other election, and then the guns will reach out.”

The affidavit, segment of a prison grievance, lists the candidate finest as “T.” A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s plot of job wouldn’t express the identities of “H.B.” and “T.” referred to in the prison grievance.

Muller also threatened the agent’s family and known as the agent “traitorous,” per the affidavit.

He sent a text to the agent that be taught, “Did you [redacted] if truth be told factor in you were going to disenfranchise 75 million Individuals and now not die? Lol,” per the affidavit.

Inaccurate claims a few stolen 2020 election are widely believed amongst Trump supporters, and a good deal of have signaled reluctance to accept the 2024 election results if Trump does now not fetch. Trump has continuously and falsely solid doubt on the outcomes of the 2020 election, which he misplaced.

Trump’s 2024 campaign has increasingly carried a message of retribution and revenge after he used to be convicted unhurried final month on 34 prison counts in Contemporary York voice court docket.

Muller used to be ordered held in custody pending a detention and preliminary listening to scheduled for Tuesday, court docket files display. A federal public defender listed as having been appointed to indicate him didn’t without delay respond to a effect a matter to for comment Thursday evening.

The charges raise a most sentence of 10 years in jail if he is convicted, the U.S. attorney’s plot of job talked about.

Phil Helsel

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

Federal agents have searched the Minnesota home of at least one of the seven defendants facing a high-profile fraud trial, days after a juror said someone attempted to bribe her with nearly $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal.

The FBI said it conducted “court authorized law enforcement activity” Wednesday in Savage, Minnesota, where, according to a superseding indictment, at least three of the defendants have purchased homes in the last few years.

The seven defendants are accused of misusing millions of dollars meant to feed children during the pandemic. The federal fraud trial, which began April 22, is the first in an alleged $250 million Covid relief scheme that prosecutors say is the largest of its kind.

On the eve of deliberations Sunday night, a juror said a woman delivered a gift bag full of cash and left it with a relative, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit. The jurors’ names have not been made public, but the visitor knew the woman’s first name and told her relative that there would “be more of that present tomorrow” if the juror agreed to vote not guilty, the affidavit said.

The juror was dismissed after reporting the alleged bribe attempt to the court and police. A second juror was released Tuesday after a family member brought up the alleged bribe in a conversation.

It’s unclear who offered the juror the bribe. All of the defendants, their attorneys and the prosecutors had access to that juror’s identifying information, officials said.

In a detention order filed Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel said it is “likely” that at least one defendant was involved in the bribe attempt. 

“As the Court sees it, it is more than possible that one of the seven defendants on trial played a role in bribing a juror,” Brasel wrote. 

“The actions reported by the juror strike at the heart of the justice system,” the judge added, “and the Court views the sanctity of our jury system as paramount.”

Brasel said bribing a juror is a felony and comes with a substantial term of imprisonment, including a 20-year statutory maximum in certain cases.

The judge ordered the defendants to surrender their cellphones and all seven were taken into custody.

It’s also unclear who was targeted in the FBI’s activity Wednesday and what it may have yielded. Several search warrants were listed in the U.S. District of Minnesota on Wednesday, but none were publicly accessible.

The FBI said the investigation was ongoing and declined to provide or confirm more information. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota declined to comment.

The search comes as the sequestered jury continues deliberating the fate of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff and Hayat Mohamed Nur. The defendants are facing felony charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, federal programs bribery and money laundering.

Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Said Shafii Farah, declined to comment. None of the attorneys listed for the other six defendants responded to requests for comment.

From April 2020 to January 2022, according to a criminal complaint, the defendants collectively received more than $40 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds, which were meant to provide free, nutritious meals to children and low-income families.

While the defendants claimed to have fed millions of children with those funds, prosecutors said they used most of the money to buy multiple homes, properties and luxury vehicles.

The defendants were among 70 people charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota in a massive fraud scheme involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Eighteen have pleaded guilty, officials said.

Feeding Our Future was a sponsor participating in the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Prosecutors said the nonprofit’s employees recruited people and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout Minnesota. Feeding Our Future went from receiving and disbursing about $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021, prosecutors said.