PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A federal jury convicted an Arizona man Monday of threatening to kill President Donald Trump when he was president-elect and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rene Ortiz, 56, of Casa Grande, was found guilty of two counts of making threats against successors to the presidency and one count of threats against former presidents.
On Nov. 5, 2024, Election Day, Ortiz left a written note at the federal courthouse in Phoenix that claimed he would “execute the newly elected [President of the United States] by firing an M-16A2 service rifle with a magazine of 6 rounds,” directed at both candidates, federal prosecutors said.
Then on Nov. 25, 2024, he delivered a second note to the courthouse in Tucson, which said he was going to shoot “the incoming fraudulent elected [President of the United States] … at the inauguration on January 20th, 2025.”
Before Ortiz’s threatening filings, he filed a civil lawsuit in September requesting that Trump and Kamala Harris be removed from the ballot and that he be placed on the ballot for president, with Joe Biden as his vice president.
When the U.S. Secret Service interviewed him, Ortiz, who claims to be a U.S. Marine combat veteran, admitted to making the threats and said he would follow through “if my demands are not met.”
He was arrested on Jan. 17, 2025, days before Trump’s inauguration.
Sentencing for Ortiz is scheduled for Sept. 1.
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“The message in this case is clear: The American people will not stand for threats of political violence against President Trump or any other elected official,” U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine said in an emailed statement. “A jury of Mr. Ortiz’s peers unanimously agreed that his threats were egregious violations of the law and rendered a just verdict.”
Ortiz faces up to 15 years in prison.
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