By rssfeeds-admin 
Derek Lopez, 27, appeared at the U.S. District Courthouse in Downtown Peoria on Monday, clad in an orange jumpsuit. At end of the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ron Hanna noted that Lopez, despite his assertions that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, was a threat to community.
The judge noted an Instagram post on Oct. 26 showed an unknown man walking down a road. He pointed a gun and then an image of Trump, wearing crown and having cross-hairs on his head, popped up. A day later he said, on his X.com, “I’m gonna kill Donald Trump. idaf.”
Those, he said, were clearly threats. Also, Hanna based his decision, in part, on Lopez’s continued posting upon repeated warnings from his family and from two FBI agents during an interview that his social media posts were likely not considered “free speech” but rather threats.
There was also post, according to court records, where he allegedly put crosshairs on the United States’ representative to the United Nations.
Hanna noted that Lopez’s motive for the posts — trying to change people’s behavior by scaring them — was the definition of a threat. And that came despite being told that threats weren’t considered protected speech.
As such, he sided with Assistant U.S. Attorney Darilynn J. Knauss who argued that Lopez should be held. The case will now likely be bound over for review by a federal grand jury which should meet sometime fairly soon.
Jessica Douglas of the federal Public Defender’s Office sought for pretrial release with his family, saying that Lopez would abide by a curfew, electronic monitoring and that he had constantly made it clear that he wasn’t serious.
The judge said no, that Lopez showed poor impulse control and no ability to abide by conditions of pretrial release. Also, he noted, Lopez was twice arrested for tipping over a table for Turning Point USA while on the ISU campus a few days after he was warned by the FBI agents.
Threatening the president is a federal offense that carries a possible five-year prison term though given his lack of criminal history, any sentence would likely be less than that.
The case
Lopez got on the FBI’s radar in mid-September when some of his posts were flagged by the agency’s National Threat Operations Center as “concerning.” The posts, made on Instagram or Facebook, lashed out at Nazis and fascists.
He talks about killing Nazis, Klansmen and others who he deems to be fascist, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. Clerk’s Office. He also lashed out at ICE or the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, with a picture that showed him holding a large knife.
“POV (Point of view) You’re a tire on an ICE vehicle,” states one. Another says “I STAND WITH (punching) ICE (in the face),” the affidavit alleged.
A few weeks later, on Oct. 9, he was called in for an interview with the FBI which he consented to. During that interview, he admitted what he was doing was a little “crazy” but that it was “performance art,” the complaint alleges.
He told the agents that he didn’t own an gun, that he viewed himself as a nonviolent person but that his posts were a “vent for how powerless he felt in real life.”
The next day, he texted the agents showing them posts that had pictures of them and asking if “It was ok?” A few days later, he created a different account, dubbed “Agent Smith” and jabbed at the interview and their warnings. The account profile said, in part, that it was a professional FBI agent in the “predicative crimes Dept. Thought crime becomes real,” the complaint states.
He allegedly livestreamed his initial interview with the two FBI agents, and also posted several times mocking their warnings.
And when he was talking to members of the ISU Police Department regarding his disorderly conduct arrests for the table flipping incident, they noted that he told them that he felt like Nazism and fascism was on the rise. The report said he felt that some “powerful people should be killed,” comparing it to Saddam Hussein’s death, the complaint alleges.
He also allegedly posted on Instagram that given the governmental shutdown, it was the “perfect time to kill the president. The Secret Service is down.”
That statement, his attorney argued, showed he wasn’t serious as people know that federal employees, especially within the Secret Service, were still working. But Hanna again said no, that it showed that despite repeated warnings, he could not stop his posting.
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