A Texas man was arrested last Wednesday after he allegedly threatened to decapitate a staffer of President Trump and later kill their entire family over a series of chilling voicemail messages.
Thomas Austria Crouse, of Austin, was cuffed after he was traced to a series of jarring voicemails left to an unidentified Trump staffer on Aug. 25, the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced.
Crouse allegedly told the staffer — whose name was not released by the attorney’s office — that he would find them and chop off their head before slaughtering their family, according to the press release.
The specific references to the staffer’s employment and the “violent nature” of the call quickly spurred an FBI investigation.
Crouse was identified as the caller in less than a day. He agreed to stop leaving the threatening voicemails during an interview with federal agents on Aug. 26, the prosecutors said.
He apparently pivoted mere hours later, though, and allegedly left five more voicemails telling the staffer to kill themself.
Crouse was arrested on Aug. 27, putting a swift end to the disturbing three-day saga.
The current criminal complaint against him includes rough charges for transmitting an interstate communication containing a threat to injure the person. If convicted, Crouse could face up to five years in prison.
The FBI, US Secret Service, and Capitol Police are still investigating the case.
The Post reached out to the White House for comment.
Many members of Trump’s staff, and even President Trump himself, have faced incessant threats since his landslide victory last November.
Just three weeks after clinching the victory, multiple nominees for Trump’s cabinet and other administration appointees were victims of bomb threats at their homes.
In May, former FBI Director James Comey was probed by the Secret Service after he shared a cryptic post on Instagram that several took as a violent threat against Trump.
As recently as early August, a Pennsylvania man was arrested for threatening to kill the president and lamenting that the US was heading towards a “literal oligarchy.”
Read the full article here
