The Department of Justice has filed federal charges against the man accused of attacking Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar at a town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday. In newly filed court documents, a “close associate” told investigators that the alleged attacker previously said that someone “should kill” the Minnesota lawmaker.
Local police arrested and booked Anthony James Kazmierczak, 55, for third-degree assault after he appeared to spray Omar with an acidic-smelling liquid from a syringe as she addressed constituents from a lectern.
In a criminal complaint, filed on Wednesday, the justice department charged Kazmierczak with a single count, alleging he “forcibly assaulted, opposed, impeded, intimidated and interfered” with Omar – a crime that carries up to a year in prison.
In an attached affidavit signed by an FBI special agent, a forensic team determined that the substance sprayed at Omar was a mixture of “water and apple cider vinegar”. Also included are pictures of the syringe that Kazmierczak is accused of using to assault the congresswoman. The agent said the liquid “stained” Omar’s clothes and “may have reached her face and right eye”.
Kazmierczak rushed the lectern when Omar called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be abolished “for good” and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, to resign. According to the affidavit, Kazmierczak said “She [Noem] is not resigning. You’re splitting Minnesotans apart” after he sprayed the lawmaker.
Omar, though visibly shaken, decided to continue the event on Tuesday, despite pleas from people who were attending to end the town hall for her safety. “I’ve survived war,” she told reporters after the event. “And I’m definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me, because I’m built that way.”
The documents outlined how the FBI agent spoke with a “close associate” of Kazmierczak, who said that the accused called for somebody “to kill that bitch”, referring to Omar. Law enforcement also found a cartoon that Kazmierczak shared on his public Facebook profile in 2021 that criticized Omar for her stance on security spending during nationwide calls to defund the police. Reports show that Kazmierczak also followed several conservative activists and commentators on social media.
Just hours before the attack in north Minneapolis, Donald Trump continued to hurl xenophobic comments at Omar while delivering remarks in Iowa. Despite bipartisan condemnation by members of Congress, the president remained unsympathetic about the incident, claiming, baselessly, that Omar “had herself sprayed”.
The Democratic representative, who is routinely the subject of Trump’s animus, said that the president’s “hateful rhetoric” was ultimately the cause of the frequent threats and harassment levied against her. Trump, undeterred, continued to lambast Omar at a cabinet meeting on Thursday. “We keep taking in garbage to our country,” he said. “Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage. These people come from hell, complain, and do nothing but bitch.”
