A Minnesota man was arrested after allegedly offering $45,000 for the killing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to court documents.
Tyler Avalos, 29, published the threat on TikTok saying he wanted Bondi “dead or alive” but “preferably dead,” according to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Caleb Jurchisin.
The investigation into Avalos started Oct. 9 when a tipster from Detroit “submitted a report to the FBI National Threat Operations Center” and flagged the suspect’s TikTok feed, the FBI said.
The TikTok post included a picture of Bondi “with a sniper-scope red dot on” her forehead, according to the affidavit.
“Additionally, the suspect user posted a comment below the description that reads ‘cough cough’/’when you don’t serve us then what?'” Jurchisin added.
TikTok, Google and Comcast helped the FBI trace the suspect, the affidavit says, learning he signed up for the platform on a Samsung Galaxy phone.
Avalos was charged with creating “an online post containing a threat to injure,” according to a criminal complaint.
He appeared in court last Wednesday and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. A judge released him on a personal recognizance but ordered him to wear a GPS monitor.
Lawyers for Avalos, who lives in St. Paul, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bondi’s office declined comment on the matter.
TikTok, Google and Comcast (which is the parent company of NBCUniversal) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The suspect has a rap sheet that includes convictions for a July 2022 stalking case in Dakota County and a domestic battery charge in Polk County, Florida, in August 2016, the affidavit said.
He also has a 2019 misdemeanor battery case out of Dakota County “which appears to have been reduced from a felony domestic assault by strangulation,” the court document showed.
The suspect identifies as an anarchist, according to the affidavit, which says that his username included a symbol for anarchy and an “Anarchist FAQ book” was pinned to his page.
Anarchism “advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations,” the affidavit says.
Madelyn Urabe contributed.