NEW YORK (AP) — A western New York man has been charged with threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that Patrick Carlineo Jr. was arrested after placing a threatening call to Omar’s office in Washington D.C. last month.
Authorities did not say when Carlineo was arrested.
FILE – In this Nov. 15, 2018 file photo, Rep.-elect IIhan Omar, D-Minn., center, listens during member-elect orientations on Capitol Hill in Washington. A western New York man has been charged with threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Omar of Minnesota. Federal prosecutors announced Friday, April 5, 2019, that Patrick Carlineo Jr. was arrested after placing a threatening call to Omar’s office in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Omar is among the first of two Muslim women to serve in Congress.
The FBI said in a criminal complaint Carlineo called her a “terrorist” and threatened to shoot her.
The bureau said that Carlineo sounded angry during the call but “spelled his name correctly and provided contact information” to a staffer.
Carlineo told the FBI that he is a patriot, “loves the president and that he hates radical Muslims in our government,” the criminal complaint says.
Carlineo’s defense attorney declined to comment on the charges Friday.
Omar was met with backlash for remarks she made earlier this year on Israel, including comments that American supporters of Israel are pushing people to have “allegiance to a foreign country .” Some people perceived Omar’s comments were anti-Semitic. She later apologized, saying “anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”
Omar, a Somali-American, has also received racist comments.
The FBI this week arrested another New York man who authorities say talked online with white supremacists about a reenactment of the New Zealand mosque massacre.
Thomas Alonzo Bolin was charged with lying to federal agents about whether he owned firearms. Bolin’s attorney declined to comment.