The Justice Department has filed charges against the man who is accused of spraying Rep. Ilhan Omar with a substance at a town hall meeting.
According to the criminal complaint filed yesterday (January 28), 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak is being charged with crimes, including assaulting, interfering, or impeding officers and employees of the federal government during the official performance of their duties.
On January 27, Kazmierczak approached Omar while she was addressing a group at a public forum and sprayed her using a syringe containing a substance confirmed to be apple cider vinegar by the North Metro Chemical Assessment Team in Minnesota. He shouted something at her and then was immediately detained by Omar’s security.
The affidavit alleges that Kazmierczak also uttered something to the effect of “I squirted vinegar” while he was being arrested, and that he said to the crowd, “She’s not resigning. You’re splitting Minnesotans apart,” as he was being taken out of the event.
The decision from the DOJ comes after President Donald Trump denied the attack on Omar and called her a fraud in an interview with ABC News’ Rachel Scott.
“She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” President Trump said.
Omar has defended herself against the president’s claims, saying at a press conference following the attack, “Blame is very interesting, but facts are more important, and what the facts have shown since I’ve gotten into elected office is that every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket.”
In the days following the attack, the DOJ has investigated Kazmierczak and found out about an instance where he previously threatened to harm Omar. According to a friend of his who was interviewed by the department, during a phone conversation several years ago, Kazmierczak was speaking about Omar and said, “Somebody should kill that b—h.” The affidavit also shows that in 2021, he shared a cartoon of Omar that criticized her position on dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department and claimed she spends $100,000 on security.
Omar has also shared a theory on why Kazmierczak confronted her. She blamed President Trump for his hateful rhetoric toward the Somali community in Minnesota, and said that Kazmierczak “was specifically upset that Trump’s order to deport Somalis was not yielding enough deportations of Somalis.”
