OPINION:
Late last month on Fox News, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, made what sounded very much like a death threat against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
He said, “She’s got to go. We are dead serious,” Mr. Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “She needs to be put on ice permanently.”
“On ice permanently” means killed; there is no room for interpretation. It’s essentially a murder order.
That makes it a federal crime under U.S. Code 18 §115: “Influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a Federal official by threatening or injuring a family member.” Here is some of the code’s language: “Whoever … assaults, kidnaps, or murders, or attempts or conspires to kidnap or murder, or threatens to assault, kidnap or murder a member of the immediate family of a United States official … shall be punished” with fines and/or imprisonment.
As a former law enforcement officer and taxpayer, I cannot stand by and continually watch our paid public officials violate law after law and then get away with it. I ask that those agencies capable of arresting and removing Mr. Jeffries from office do so immediately.
GREGORY J. TOPLIFF
Aiken, South Carolina
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