After a man accused of threatening her life pled guilty to the crime in a U.S. District Court, Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday released publicly a letter she wrote asking the federal judge presiding over the case to “show compassion” in his sentencing.
Patrick W. Carlineo Jr., a 55-year-old man from upstate New York, pled guilty on Monday on gun charges and for threatening to murder Omar in phone calls he made to her congressional office in March of this year. But in her letter to Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr., Omar said that while the charges were quite serious she did not think that an overly punitive sentence was the answer.
“The answer to hate is not more hate; it is compassion,” Omar wrote.
“Who are we as a nation,” her letter asks, “if we respond to threats of political retribution with retribution ourselves?”
The Minnesota Democrat posted the letter in its entirety on social media:
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