A U.S. Capitol insurrectionist who was sentenced to serve 27 months in prison for threatening the federal judge who oversaw an election interference case against President Donald Trump has failed to report to prison to start her sentence.
Federal officials say 45-year-old Abigail Jo Shry might be in hiding after she was supposed to self-surrender to a federal correctional facility in Tallahassee, Florida, on Feb. 19, according to CBS News. Now a Texas judge has ordered a warrant for her arrest.
Shry pleaded guilty in November 2024 to a federal charge in Texas for a threatening phone message she left for U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
According to the Justice Department, Shry called Chutkan’s chambers on Aug. 5, 2023, and left a voicemail that said, “Hey, you stupid slave n—r” and “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we’re coming to kill you. So tread lightly, b—h.”
She threatened anyone who dared to try to prosecute or incriminate Trump in wrongdoing, along with all Democrats in Washington, D.C., and all LGBTQ people. She also made threats against Sheila Jackson Lee, a Black Democratic U.S. representative who died in 2024.
Shry also left the following statements on Chutkan’s voicemail:
“You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”
“You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”
It only took a couple of days for the feds to track the message to Shry’s cellphone in the Alvin area of Houston, Texas. Shry admitted to authorities that she left the message, but never intended to act upon her threats.
However, she suggested that if Rep. Lee were to travel to Alvin, then “we need to worry.”
At her plea hearing, she reportedly said that she thought the First Amendment protected her statements.
Through several motions, Shry’s legal team has attempted to delay the start of her federal prison term to give the 45-year-old time to settle her family affairs, but a judge denied the requests.
Shry has a criminal history of making threats against public officials.
Authorities say she threatened members of Congress as well as two state senators in Houston in 2023.
In one phone threat to the state senators, she declared there would be “war on the Texas Capitol” in the form of an “armed attack,” where she and others would “take weapons, come to Austin, and annihilate the government,” if Trump ally and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton were impeached.
The Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton in May 2023 for bribery and corruption after he allegedly abused his position to protect a political donor. In September of that year, the state Senate acquitted him, allowing him to return to his position.
Shry made similar threats to elected members of Congress, threatening an “attack on the U.S. Capitol” if Trump was not re-elected.
Shry’s father once testified that his daughter has a drinking and news consumption problem.
“Mr. Shry believes that Defendant is a non-violent alcoholic. He testified that she sits on her couch daily watching the news while drinking too many beers. She then becomes agitated by the news and starts calling people and threatening them,” he said, according to court filings, per Law&Crime. “Mr. Shry stated that his daughter never leaves her residence and therefore would not act upon her threats.”
Shry, alongside more than 1,600 convicted Capitol rioters, was pardoned by President Donald Trump for their roles in the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
