Florida man pleads guilty to Trump threat over ‘benefits’
FILE – President Donald Trump speaks to the media, Friday, June 27, 2025, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File).
A Florida man pleaded guilty to threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump in federal court this week, court records show.
Edward Raymond Mellor, 52, stands accused of one count of threats against the president and successors to the presidency, according to a 3-page indictment filed in the Middle District of Florida.
“I want to assassinate the president,” Edward Raymond Mellor, 52, told the FBI during a phone call, according to federal prosecutors. “He”s a f–ing piece of s– and I’m going to kill him.”
That 17-second-long phone call was made on the afternoon of April 1, to the public affairs office of the FBI’s Jacksonville branch, according to a 4-page penalty notice filed by federal prosecutors this week.
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The notice was filed after a change of plea hearing held before U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Lothman Lambert in Jacksonville on Sept. 23.
During that hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Milliron said Mellor told FBI agents Trump was going to “take his benefits away,” according to a courtroom report by The Florida Times-Union.
The defendant immediately hung up after making the threat, according to the notice. That same afternoon, the U.S. Secret Service obtained a subpoena which identified Mellor as the phone subscriber.
The next day, a collection of FBI and Secret Service agents interviewed the defendant at his home, according to the notice.
“At the outset of the interview, the defendant confirmed his phone number as the one that called the FBI,” the notice reads. “But he denied making the call to the FBI. He claimed that he believed his old boss hacked into his cellphone and made the threat pretending to be the Defendant. He mentioned “the f—ing President” and said the President planned to take his benefits away.”
During the interview, the agents also called the same FBI public affairs employee who answered the threatening phone call. Then, when comparing voices, the employee said Mellor was “100%” the same person who called the day before, according to the notice.
Prosecutors also took note of some telltale digital evidence.
“Law enforcement reviewed the contents of the defendant’s phone in his possession,” the notice goes on. “Initially, the call log did not show any calls to the FBI at the specific date and time of the threat on April 1. However, later forensic review revealed several calls were placed to the FBI on April 1, including at the time the FBI received the threatening phone call, but those calls had been deleted from the call log. Additionally, law enforcement observed multiple internet searches related to wanting to kill the President.”
An arrest warrant was then issued on April 22; Mellor was eventually arrested on May 27, court records show.
As of this writing, the defendant’s guilty plea has yet to be formally accepted by the district court – but the magistrate judge issued a terse report recommending the judge accept the plea.
“After cautioning the defendant and examining him under oath concerning each Rule 11 matter, I determined that the guilty plea was knowingly, freely, intelligently, and voluntarily made, and that there is a factual basis for each element of the charged offense,” Lambert wrote. “I recommend that the Court accept the defendant’s plea and adjudicate him guilty. The parties agreed to waive the objection period to this report and recommendation.”
