A 36-year-old Tallahassee man was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison after making online threats to assassinate President Donald Trump and target other public officials.
Diego Martin Villavicencio pleaded guilty in April to two counts of sending interstate threats. In addition to his prison term, federal prosecutors announced that Villavicencio will serve three years of supervised release, with the first year spent under home detention. His conditions of supervision require mental health evaluation and treatment, as well as computer monitoring.
Villavicencio was arrested in February following an investigation into violent messages posted across social media platforms and the anonymous internet forum 4chan. Court records and federal filings show he repeatedly advocated for violence against politicians, corporate leaders, and federal institutions over a period of several months.
Among the posts cited by federal investigators was a message referencing Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, in which Villavicencio wrote, “I’ll be driving there to take a couple shots at trump and some of the other corrupt plutocrats.” In another post, he explicitly wrote, “I’m going to shoot … Donald Trump.”
Other messages detailed in court documents targeted former President Joe Biden, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, along with broader calls to violence such as “corruption listens to bullets” and “political violence is the only language plutocrats understand. I’ll be killing soon.”
According to federal prosecutors, Villavicencio admitted in his plea agreement that he intended his posts as genuine threats. Court filings state that he knowingly wrote the messages and understood they “would be viewed as a true threat” to take the life of or inflict bodily harm on the president.
While the charges carried a maximum potential sentence of up to 25 years in federal prison, the court handed down the two-year term during Friday’s sentencing hearing.
“The Secret Service will not tolerate threats, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the Office of the President and all our protectees,” said Seth Reister, resident agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Tallahassee office, in a statement following the sentencing. “The conviction and sentencing in this case demonstrate the dedication and professionalism of our agents, law enforcement partners, and prosecutorial partners in carrying out that mission.”
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