On November 19, 2019, Time magazine reported:
On Monday, Patrick Carlineo, 55, pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. A day later, amid deliberations over his sentence, Rep. Omar sent a letter to the judge overseeing Carlineo’s case asking for “compassion,” and arguing that he should have the opportunity to “make amends and seek redemption.”
“Punishing the defendant with a lengthy prison sentence or a burdensome financial fine would not rehabilitate him. It would not repair the harm he has caused,” Omar wrote in the letter. “It would only increase his anger and resentment.”
Omar went on to say that threats of political violence are not new — and argued they are actually increasing in today’s political climate — but said they can’t be defeated with “anger and exclusion.”
According to the Associated Press, Carlineo, of Addison, New York, called Omar’s Congressional office on March 21. Speaking with a staffer, he called the congresswoman a terrorist and threatened to shoot her.
