President Donald Trump attends the 157th National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, May 26, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
A 49-year-old woman in Hawaii was sentenced to prison for threatening to assassinate Donald Trump and Joe Biden last year in a series of online posts, including saying that she was going to "blow up the White House and kill the president" because she can "legally get away with it."
Senior U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor on Wednesday ordered Rebecca Ann Folley to serve seven months in a federal correctional facility followed by three years of supervised release.
The sentence was handed down after Folley reached a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of making threats against the president. However, because Folley has been incarcerated since her arrest seven months ago, she will be released for time served.
The investigation into Folley began when the U.S. Secret Service on Dec. 16, 2024, learned about threats made against Biden by a Facebook profile named "Becca Waters." The post, from March 2, 2024, read, "Going to kill the president (INSPECTOR GENERAL, I NEED YOU ASAP)."
In a Dec. 18, 2024, interview with federal agents, Folley claimed to have been a "trafficking victim," but said her reports to law enforcement were "being ignored." She explained that she posted the presidential threats as a "cry for help." From the complaint:
She posted on Facebook and still no one responded. She tried to send up "the biggest red flare [she] could f—ing find" "figure[ing] that would definitely get someone's attention" but was still ignored. She even explained that she made "presidential threats" and "posted then on Facebook" but she was still being ignored. "Nobody even reported the presidential threats."
Folley began questioning why she was being overlooked, saying it got to the point where she began to boast about the situation.
"I was wondering how long, and honestly, I started bragging," she told agents, per the complaint. "I was like, I've got to be the only person in the United States history that's ever been able to get away with 200 of these things on record."
The agents asked Folley to cease making the threats, and she responded, "I'll be good." However, in March 2025, investigators discovered that she tagged a post on Honolulu City and County Councilman Tommy Waters' Facebook wall stating, "Lets see if this will trigger the governmental red flag, as to reach federal office's outside of the state of Hawaii."
Folley also attached screenshots to the post which said, "I am going to blow up the White House and kill the President of the United States of America."
The complaint also notes that Ryan Routh, who was convicted of trying to shoot President Trump at one of his golf courses in Florida, had "posted similar messages to Councilman Waters' Facebook page" just prior to the attempted assassination.
On Feb. 3, 2025, using the same account, Folley posted:
YUP, EVERYONE, PLEASE LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL PUBLIC PRESIDENTIAL DEATH THREATS AND PUBLIC THREATS TO BLOW UP The White House BECAUSE I CAN LEGALLY GET AWAY WITH IT
In a second interview with federal agents, Folley said she continued to make the presidential threats to "make sure that it wasn't being ignored anymore."
As conditions of her release, Folley is required to undergo substance abuse and mental health treatment. Her computer usage will also be strictly monitored.
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