by Annabella Rosciglione at Washington Examiner
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) is raising questions about why someone who threatened his family isn’t being prosecuted at the federal level.
The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana has declined to prosecute a man who left threatening voicemails to his family. While Aaron Thompson was sentenced to two years of probation by the local district attorney in Indiana, threats against members of Congress are usually handled by the U.S. attorney general’s office as it is a violation of federal law.
“When Capitol Police referred the criminal case against Aaron Thompson to the U.S. Attorney for Northern District of Indiana, they declined to prosecute despite clear evidence that Thompson violated federal law,” Banks wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in December.
Banks released the letter following Garland’s recent op-ed in which he said he did not stand for political threats or violence.
“We investigate and prosecute violations of federal law — nothing more, nothing less,” Garland wrote.
“I have no doubt that you, as a husband and father yourself, would do anything to protect your family, but I want to know why you have refused to protect mine,” Banks wrote.
Banks shared some of the threats that Thompson made to him in phone calls to Banks’s congressional office. Thompson also reportedly told Banks he was a gun owner in the messages.
“Here’s the choice. Your daughters grow up without their dad or you grow old without your daughters,” Thompson allegedly said. “…boom, boom you pick…”…
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