Despite President Trump’s waves of pardons for allies and supporters who sought to overturn his 2020 election loss and his clemency for all Capitol riot defendants, at least one federal case with tethers to the 2020 election is still lingering.
A federal judge in Houston will sentence Abigail Shry on Wednesday afternoon, after she pleaded guilty to phoning a vulgar, violent and racist threat to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in August 2023. The threat was made hours after Chutkan was assigned to oversee Mr. Trump’s criminal case for allegedly conspiring to overturn his 2020 loss, of which Jan. 6 was a component.
In charging documents, the Justice Department said Shry, 45, left a voicemail for Chutkan in which she threatened to kill anyone who “went after President Trump.”
The document alleged Shry referred to Chutkan as a “slave,” used a racial epithet and made threats against a Texas Democratic congresswoman, “all Democrats” and the LGBTQ community.
Shry’s voice message also said, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly,” according to the Justice Department’s court filings.
Investigators say they linked the message to Shry after determining her cell phone number was used to make the threatening call.
Shry pleaded guilty in November 2024 to a federal charge of transmitting an interstate threat. Her sentencing hearing had been postponed multiple times before Wednesday’s court date. Sentencing recommendations, which are frequently posted in public view on federal criminal case dockets, are not publicly listed in Shry’s case.
On the day of Shry’s guilty plea, the Justice Department offered further details on its investigation, saying Shry admitted that she made the call and “noted that she had no plans to travel anywhere to carry out anything she stated.” But she also allegedly told investigators that “if the congresswoman ever traveled to her city, then ‘we need to worry.'”
Abigail Jo Shry, who pleaded guilty to leaving a voicemail threatening Judge Tanya Chutkan. / Credit: Brazoria County jail
Shry’s case was one of a fast-rising number of threats made against federal judges in the past few years. Reports from the U.S. Marshals Service, which protects federal judges, said more than 560 threats have been investigated so far this year. That’s more than all of 2024 and on pace to match or surpass 2023 levels.
A federal judge had briefly ordered Shry to remain in pretrial detention in the case. In a May 2024 hearing, a Justice Department prosecutor argued, “My greatest concern in this case is that she starts watching FOX News again, gets herself spun up, she goes out, she gets a case of beer, continues to get herself spun up. There’s no way to gauge what’s going to happen here, except to look at what she’s done in the past six months.”
A federal judge later released Shry, under the condition that Shry not possess firearms or consume alcohol.
According to a sentencing report submitted by the Justice Department in Shry’s case, Shry faces a maximum of five years in prison. Federal defendants are typically sentenced to less than the maximum prison term.
Judge Keith Ellison of Houston will handle the sentencing in Houston.
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