Attorney General Pam Bondi appears before a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025 (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein).
A TikTok post with crosshairs over the forehead of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, appearing to a tipster to offer $45,000 for a "hit" on the nation's top law enforcement officer, resulted in the arrest of a 29-year-old suspect in Minnesota, the FBI has alleged.
The suspect, identified by the feds as Tyler Maxon Avalos, is charged with interstate transmission of a threat to injure another person, as first reported by Seamus Hughes.
In an all too familiar threat environment, the federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) criminalizes "any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another," an offense punishable upon conviction by up to five years in prison.
According to the affidavit, a TikTok user in Michigan on Oct. 9 called in a tip about Avalos' alleged threat, describing it to the feds as a murder-for-hire post.
Included in the court documents was an image of a wanted poster with Bondi's face on it, a "sniper-scope red dot" on her forehead, the words "WANTED: Pam Bondi / REWARD: 45,000 / DEAD OR ALIVE / (PREFERABLY DEAD)," and the caption "*cough cough* when they don't serve us then what?"
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The FBI said that the TikTok poster had the username "Wacko" with an anarchist symbol in place of the "a."
"Additionally, the suspect user's TikTok page had a link to An Anarchist FAQ book pinned to his page," court documents said.
The feds added that Avalos was arrested in St. Paul on Oct. 16, after investigators checked "Minnesota state supervision records" and found him at the same address listed in that database due to his prior "criminal history."
The TikTok post allegedly targeting Attorney General Pam Bondi (DOJ).
"Your Affiant also checked Avalos's criminal history and learned that he has a multistate conviction history including a July 2022 felony stalking conviction from Dakota County, an August 2016 felony third-degree domestic battery from Polk County, Florida, and an April 2016 misdemeanor domestic assault from Dakota County, which appears to have been reduced from a felony domestic assault by strangulation charge," the FBI affidavit said.
Court documents from Wednesday additionally showed that U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko granted Avalos a release from custody, subject to various conditions. Those conditions included no travel outside of Minnesota, continuing mental health treatment, no possession of weapons, no consumption of alcohol, a curfew, GPS monitoring, and no internet access without approval.
The government will have to prove that the post in question constituted a "true threat," which could be a steep hill to climb in this case given the First Amendment's protections of political speech and hyperbole.
Law&Crime sought comment from Avalos' attorney of record, Daniel Gerdts.
In response, the attorney said he had no comment "except to note that" his client "is not guilty of any crime."
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