A woman arrested last month for allegedly threatening President Donald Trump was released by a federal judge known for opposing the Trump administration on multiple occasions this year. This includes efforts to prevent the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants under specific laws.
Judge James Boasberg ordered 50-year-old Natalie Rose Jones to see a psychiatrist in New York City following her release on electronic monitoring scheduled for August 27. She was able to retrieve her belongings from the police.
This ruling came after US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya decided that Jones should be detained for a competency evaluation due to what she described as “very nasty behaviour” towards the president in a social media post.
Interestingly, Jones participated in Trump’s “Dignified Arrest Ceremony” during a demonstration in Washington, D.C. She was taken into custody after investigations into her posts on Instagram and Facebook, which raised alarms. In early August, she labeled Trump a terrorist, criticizing his administration as dictatorial and claiming it caused significant losses of life due to the pandemic.
One particular post on August 6 expressed her intention to harm Trump, indicating a desire to “dismantle” him with a message addressing the FBI. A subsequent post to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses detailed plans for an arrest ceremony for Trump, again referring to him as a terrorist.
Jones voluntarily met with the Secret Service the next day, where she reiterated that she viewed Trump as a terrorist and suggested she had tools to carry out her threats. Following protests in D.C. on August 16, she acknowledged during a second Secret Service interview that her previous remarks posed a threat to Trump’s safety.
She faced accusations of making threats that could seriously harm Trump or encourage violence against him.
In response to the seriousness of Jones’s actions, Upadhyaya required her detention. However, her lawyer contested this decision, leading Boasberg to overturn the detention order.
Fox News Digital sought comments from the Department of Justice on the matter.
Boasberg, appointed by President Barack Obama, has been at odds with the Trump administration several times throughout the year. In March, he attempted to block the use of wartime immigration laws to deport Venezuelan citizens back to El Salvador, even ordering that all planes scheduled for deportation return to U.S. soil swiftly—an order that reportedly was not complied with. His subsequent investigations were tied to allegations of non-compliance with his rulings.
In July, Attorney General Pam Bondy filed a complaint alleging improper conduct concerning Boasberg’s comments about Trump’s administration. This complaint suggested that Boasberg’s statements lacked proper justification and that the Trump administration had adhered to court orders adequately.
