Judge David Campbell's opinion Thursday in U.S. v. Ortiz (D. Ariz.) deals with a somewhat unusual sort of threat. On Election Day 2024, Ortiz tried to file in court a document stating, "'I chose to execute the newly elected POTUS by firing an M-16A2 Service Rifle with a magazine of 6 rounds." (The document also noted "that the 'newly elected POTUS' would be 'either…K.D. Harris or D.J. Trump,'" but the court said that, "[b]ecause the document is not made part of the indictment, … the Court has not relied on it in ruling on the motion to dismiss.")

For this, Ortiz was charged with three counts. In Count 1, he was charged under 18 U.S.C. § 871, which "criminalizes threats of violence made against the President, the President-elect, or the Vice President," with threatening VP Harris; the cour

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