A Texas woman who admitted to leaving a racist, threatening voicemail for the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election case will learn her fate in federal court in Houston on Wednesday.
Abigail Jo Shry, 45, pleaded guilty last year to making an interstate threat after investigators traced a menacing message to her phone. The call came just hours after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was assigned to Trump’s case in August 2023, according to court documents.
Per CBS, prosecutors said Shry vowed to kill “anyone who went after President Trump,” hurled a racial slur at Judge Chutkan, and expanded her threats to target a Texas Democratic congresswoman, “all Democrats,” and the LGBTQ community. In the same voicemail, she warned, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly,” according to the Justice Department. Investigators confirmed that Shry’s cell phone was used to make the call.
In November 2024, Shry told the court she understood that even a threat she didn’t intend to carry out could still be a crime. Prosecutors said she fully admitted to making the call. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, though federal defendants often receive less than the maximum. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced her guilty plea, but sentencing recommendations have not been made public.
U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison is presiding over Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. The case has been delayed several times since last year, with Judge Ellison now expected to decide how much prison time, if any, Shry will serve.
🇺🇸 TEXAS WOMAN ADMITS TO THREATENING JUDGE IN TRUMP CASE
Abigail Jo Shry of Texas pleaded guilty to threatening U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing Trump’s election subversion case.
In an August voicemail, Shry used racist slurs and threatened to kill Chutkan, Rep.… pic.twitter.com/iJiHUQE52O
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 13, 2024
Court filings also shed light on what Shry told investigators after her arrest. She reportedly admitted making the threats but said she had no intention of acting on them. However, she added that if the congresswoman she mentioned “ever traveled to her city,” people should “worry.” Prosecutors included that statement in their filings, pointing to it as evidence that the threat was not entirely idle.
Her case is part of a disturbing trend. Threats against federal judges have skyrocketed in recent years. The U.S. Marshals Service says it has investigated more than 560 threats so far in 2025, already outpacing last year’s total. Officials warn that hostility toward judges has grown as political tensions rise and high-profile cases, including Trump’s, dominate the headlines.
Shry was initially held in pretrial detention but later released under strict conditions. She was barred from owning firearms or consuming alcohol after prosecutors expressed concern that her behavior could escalate. During a May 2024 hearing, one prosecutor warned, “My greatest concern in this case is that she starts watching FOX News again, gets herself spun up, and drinks. There’s no way to predict what happens after that except to look at her past.”
The hearing in Houston is expected to focus on how serious her threats were and whether she poses a future danger. For judges handling politically charged cases, the Shry case serves as another reminder of the increasingly hostile climate they face.
Judge Chutkan, who has presided over multiple Trump-related cases, has become a target of online anger and conspiracy theories. Shry’s voicemail, both vulgar and racially charged, underscores that the threats facing public officials are not just digital noise, they have real-world consequences.
The question for the court now isn’t whether Shry crossed a line, she already admitted that, but how sharply Judge Ellison decides to draw it.
