Flipping through YouTube, I came across a story about Aileen Cannon, the Florida judge in the Trump Mar-a-Lago document catastrophe. The clip was from NBCNews and said that Cannon had been targeted by death threats.
These death threats came from a woman in Texas, Tiffani Shea Gish, as identified in a suit filed by the Department of Justice.
The threats came some weeks ago (the warrant was executed just over a month ago, so it could have happened any time since Trump sought Cannon’s relief). The charges seem to have just appeared today.
The news story has mushroomed in just the last six hours or so.
Here’s Ken Delanian’s report about the defendant, speaking to Kristen Welker:
According to the criminal complaint, this woman made some vile and disgusting threats over voicemail and email directed at the judge, was arrested, has been charged. But it’s also true that she—according to the complaint, she has a history of mental instability and was interviewed by the Secret Service for making death threats against Donald Trump. So in this case, it seems like a mentally disturbed individual.
So far, so good. But then, right at the end, there was this:
This just underscores just how volatile this whole situation is right now. And people who are on the edge are pushed over the edge by some of the rhetoric that’s rocketing around our politics.
Well, that’s true. But how would that figure in this case? If it’s the rhetoric at fault, whose rhetoric pushed this particular person? That’s seems to be the insinuation here. Can’t just be random rhetoric here, in such a fraught situation. The rhetoric has to have been meaningful and polarizing. Notably, as the threat took place against Cannon and against Trump, the unspoken part seems to communicate that this person, if unbalanced, was tilted toward the left.
(In fact, there’s a story up right now to that very effect. Though, by the time you finish, you have an idea of the POV of the author, who does not write for or on behalf of any national news outlet.)
I tried to find out more about Ms. Tiffani Shea Gish. I can’t say I wasn’t trying to snoop—I indeed was attempting to gather information. I wanted to see if the impression I’d gotten from Delanian’s reporting actually bore out in anything readily (or even obscurely) available.
I got a hit for Ms. Gish’s Twitter (unused) and a Facebook page from years ago. Also, a Pinterest under her name is visible, though with only the barest amount of activity ever. She does not seem to have much under her name online. Someone with the same name, also from Texas, seems to have been involved in some eviction matter back in 2020; that was in the public records. That’s pretty much it.
The features of the woman in both the Facebook page and the Pinterest are the same, so they seem to originate from the same woman. Again, just trying to confirm that I am looking at the right person. (There is no picture associated with the Twitter account.)
Now, the Facebook page is interesting, because the only page that popped up in a cursory search had to do with her advocacy for donations for a church she favored. “DONATE ASSHOLES,” she said at the time. (It seems that the Today Show screengrabbed the page for posterity.)
The church is identified as Lakewood Church, and from the photos of what appears to be a Christian revival or music festival the church is 1) evangelical/charismatic and 2) conservative, considering the affiliated sites that its own page points to (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fox News, etc.).
So it appears that, if this is Ms. Gish, she may actually have a conservative background.
Which is neither here nor there, really, when you get down to it. Someone who from all outward signs may have been unwell made threats against a public servant. This is a serious crime.
Yet this situation will be interpreted as a left loony going after both Trump AND the judge. Delanian said, after all, that Gish made death threats against Donald Trump, too.
If I am wrong, I will amend this. From what I can tell, however, it appears that the threats were made on behalf of Trump. As Trump’s PROXY.
In the voicemails, Gish allegedly said she was "Donald Trump's hitman, so consider it a bullet from Donald Trump himself."
That’s from CBSnews.com, which goes on to report that Gish “also alleged that Trump was ‘responsible for 9/11’ and that she was a federal agent.”
Reuters has this:
"Donald Trump has been disqualified long ago, and he's marked for assassination. You're helping him, ma'am," one of the voicemails said, according to the complaint.
"He's marked for assassination and so are you," the caller also said, while including an expletive.
I can’t decipher this other than to take it at face value. This indicates more than anything that Ms. Gish, if she was acting on any “political rhetoric,” let just about any infomation become grist for the mill (indeed, it appears that in her mind she’s working both for and against Trump). Notably, there’s nothing in here about Gish working both sides of the issue.
The more I read, the more the politics fell away and the story just becomes about a random person who looks to need psychiatric attention. It’s a story about a political figure, but it’s not a story about politics.
Another source, Business Insider, said this:
Federal authorities said earlier this month that Tiffani Shea Gish left three threatening voicemails for Florida Judge Aileen Cannon. In one voicemail, she said to the judge, "I'm also Trump's hitman, so consider it a bullet to your head from Donald Trump himself."
In another voicemail, she said, "you're full of shit, and I'm going to fucking have you shot myself, I've already ordered snipers and a bomb to your fucking house."
In these voicemail messages, Gish referred to herself as "Evelyn Salt" and said she was in "charge of nuclear for the United States Government."
That’s the most context I’ve seen in a single source so far.
I may update as more information comes in. I’m just cautious about initial reports. This seems like a good story for conspiracy theorists to distract themselves with and to maybe build up some self-righteous anger about the dangerous libs.
No one deserves death threats. Here’s hoping no more emerge and that Ms. Gish, if she is at fault, will get fair treatment and care as needed.