Washington — A Minnesota man was arrested earlier this month and charged with threatening Attorney General Pam Bondi in a TikTok post that appeared to place a $45,000 bounty on the nation's top law enforcement official.
The post targeting Bondi was reported to the FBI on Oct. 9 by a TikTok user in Detroit and features a photo of Bondi with a "sniper-scope red dot" on her forehead, as well as the text "WANTED: Pam Bondi. REWARD: 45,000. DEAD OR ALIVE (PREFERABLY DEAD), according to an FBI affidavit submitted with the federal court in Minnesota.
The post includes a caption that reads "*cough cough* when they don't serve us then what?" according to court filings.
The FBI traced the account to Tyler Avalos, a 30-year-old living in St. Paul, Minnesota, it said in the affidavit. The bureau alleges that the account includes ties to anarchism, including a display name that features a symbol of anarchy and a pinned link to an "Anarchist FAQ" book.
Avalos has a criminal history that includes a 2022 felony stalking conviction and 2016 misdemeanor domestic assault conviction in Minnesota, and 2016 felony third-degree domestic battery conviction in Florida, according to court papers.
Avalos made an initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Minneapolis earlier this month and was released on a personal recognizance bond last week.
The case was first reported by Seamus Hughes of the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Scott MacFarlane contributed to this report.
