Queens Man Accused Of Threatening Donald Trump Was Harmless And Medically Compromised, His Lawyer Says

A 72-year-old man was acquitted by a Brooklyn Federal Court jury of charges that he threatened to kill former President Donald Trump in a series of phone calls to the Secret Service last year.

New York Daily News reported that Thomas Welnicki was accused of threatening to murder or assist in Trump's killing by telling Secret Service agents of threats. The threats included the statement, “I will do anything and everything that I can to see that Donald Trump is dead.”

Welnicki’s defense lawyer, Deirdre Von Dornum, said of his acquittal that her client's belief in the "beauty of democracy was reaffirmed today."

On Thursday, Von Dornum told the federal jury that Welnicki is medically compromised. He was simply sad, lonely and drunk when he was in his Queens apartment during the coronavirus pandemic. The Secret Service were the only ones to take his calls. Welnicki was visited by the Secret Service agents at his house three times. Lawyers said that the agents warned him to stop making the threats. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta said Thursday before Judge Raymond Dearie that he continued to make the calls.

Von Dornum said in her opening remarks that he called the Secret Service hundreds of times, reported New York Daily News. He did so because he was “trying to find out if anyone cared about what was happening." He was trying to make sure that "he was not the only one who was scared and revolted" by the actions of Trump's after he lost the Presidential election, that he was "not the only one who saw Jan. 6 as the lowest point in our nation’s history."

His lawyer said that Welnicki doesn’t have a significant other or kids, and no one was checking on him. He became depressed at the time. Von Dornum said that he started drinking, maybe too much "blackberry brandy in the morning, in the night." Welnicki became a "nuisance, a crank. He wanted someone to talk to. He was lonely, he was scared," said the lawyer.

On Friday it was not clear if federal prosecutors would go ahead with a second trial involving Welnicki. The Queens man would be charged with threatening members of Congress during his string of calls.