A Florida man was charged with making threats against Donald Trump, the Democratic representative Eric Swalwell and an unnamed individual who appeared to be Fed chair Jerome Powell.
A federal grand jury in the northern district of Florida returned a four-count indictment against Diego Villavicencio, who is accused of making violent threats against a member of Congress and the president of the United States. A lawyer for Villavicencio declined to comment.
The indictment details messages allegedly sent by Villavicencio from September 2025 to January 2026, in which he threatened to “assault, kidnap and murder” an unnamed member of Congress, writing: “I’ll kill you and your family and you won’t do anything about it.” Swalwell, a high-profile anti-Trump critic who is running for governor of California, confirmed to NBC News that the unnamed member of Congress was him.
The indictment also alleges that Villavicencio threatened the life of the US president, writing in a January message: “I’ll be driving there to take a couple of shots at trump and some other corrupt plutocrats.”
A redacted FBI affidavit includes a screenshot of a post from an X user believed to be Villavicencio threatening a member of Congress. The threat was made in response to a post from Swalwell’s official X account on 16 September, in which the California Democrat accused the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, of having “REFUSED to prosecute MULTIPLE direct death threats against me and my family”.
“I’ll kill you and your family and you won’t do anything about it. Corruption listens to bullets,” the user replied to Swalwell. According to the affidavit, the user then sent a direct message to the representative, stating: “You are going to be shot and killed on September 24.”
According to the indictment, Villavicencio allegedly threatened another individual, who appears to be the outgoing Federal Reserve chair. The FBI affidavit refers to a post in which the user wrote “Jerome is next”. It states that the threat was reported by a senior special agent with the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System’s Protective Services Unit before Powell’s appearance at the greater Providence chamber of commerce 2025 economic outlook luncheon in Warwick, Rhode Island, on 23 September. The Federal Reserve did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A trial is set for May in Tallahassee, Florida.
The case arrives against the backdrop of rising political violence and threats against public officials and political figures.
Last year saw the assassinations of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk and the Democratic Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman, along with her husband, and the firebombing of the home of Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro. In February, a man convicted of trying to assassinate Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced to life in prison. And last month, US Capitol police released a report showing that the number of threats and other “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications” against lawmakers, their families and their staff had risen to nearly 15,000 in 2025, up from 9,500 in 2024. Some members have cited safety and the threat of political violence as a reason for leaving Congress.
Swalwell raised these concerns with the attorney general during a congressional hearing last month, recounting several death threats he and his family had received. In two instances, he said, the justice department had declined to bring charges, and he asked Bondi for her help ensuring threats against him and other public officials were prosecuted.
“We never expected that the Department of Justice would not seek to prosecute and investigate those who are making threats against us,” Swalwell told Bondi. “I’m just asking for your help to protect life – because life is at risk with the environment we’re in now.”
In response, Bondi said she was personally aware of some of the threats against Swalwell and said some of the cases against the representative were “very active”.
“None of you should be threatened, ever,” she added. “None of your children should be threatened, none of your families should be threatened. You can come into my office any day – I will work with all of you on both sides of the aisle if you are ever threatened.”
