Suspect admits to posing as a migrant and sending threats to kill Trump and ICE agents, cops say
Wisconsin man Demetric D. Scott was behind a plot to get Ramón Morales-Reyes deported so the migrant could not testify against him in a criminal case, Milwaukee prosecutors said.
Late last month, Homeland Security officials celebrated the arrest of Morales-Reyes, 54, who they said was an 'illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump.'
But Scott, 52, was charged Monday with identity theft, intimidating a witness and two counts of bail jumping for allegedly pretending to be Morales-Reyes and writing the threatening message about Trump.
In an interview in May, Scott 'admitted that he wrote everything on the letters' and 'believed the letters were the simplest way to get Morales-Reyes 'off his back,' according to court documents obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio.
'We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans – we have done more for this county than you whites – you have been deporting my family and now I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him,' the letter said, according to the complaint. 'I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in his head.'
Scott was allegedly recorded on a call from a Milwaukee County jail detailing the scheme to frame the immigrant to prevent him from testifying about a 2023 robbery in which authorities say Morales-Reyes was the victim.
'[I]f he gets picked up by ICE, there won't be a Jury Trial so they will probably dismiss it that day,' Scott said in court records.
Attorneys and family members challenged the validity of the letter, which Trump administration officials shared with the public, soon after the Mexican man's May 22 arrest, noting that Morales-Reyes can't read or write in English.
The Independent has contacted Scott's public defender and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
'I'm just glad that they have identified who it was or have a better sense of who it was,' Morales-Reyes' attorney Kime Abduli told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 'And that Ramon is being cleared of any involvement in this.'
Scott is accused of armed robbery, aggravated battery, aggravated battery, second-degree recklessly endangering safety and bail jumping over a 2023 incident in which he allegedly attacked Morales-Reyes with a corkscrew while he was riding a bicycle, leaving him with a lung abrasion.
Scott insisted the bicycle had been stolen from him and Morales-Reyes had previously threatened him.
DHS said in a statement that Morales-Reyes entered the U.S. unlawfully at least nine times between 1998 and 2005, and that he has a criminal record that includes a felony hit and run, criminal property damage, and disorderly conduct linked to domestic abuse.
He remains in custody and may still face removal.
At the time of his arrest, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: 'Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars. This threat comes not even a year after President Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania and less than two weeks after former FBI Director Comey called for the President's assassination.'
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