Woman called in Mar-a-Lago bomb threat weeks before Donald Trump’s attempted assassination

Mar-a-Lago. Image via AP.

A Boca Raton woman is facing federal criminal charges after she was accused of making a bomb threat at Mar-a-Lago, a Trump hotel, and U.S Sen. Marco Rubio’s Office, according to court documents unsealed in July.

Martha Schoenfeld is charged with threatening a former President and knowingly making a telephonic bomb threat, according to the filing in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Florida. If convicted, each charge carries a maximum prison term of 10 years and a maximum fine of $250,000.

She pleaded not guilty Friday.

According to the federal complaint, Schoenfeld called former President Donald Trump’s golf club on June 6 and said on a voicemail, “There is a bomb I left on the site, so hopefully you will get everyone evacuated except for Trump.”

Later that day, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Brenden Clements went to her house and confronted Schoenfeld that her cellphone number matched the one that phoned in in the bomb threat at the famous Palm Beach County club. At first, she denied making the call. The agent told her the Secret Service would likely do a phone call trace to prove the call’s origins. Then Schoenfeld admitted to making the bomb threat, according to federal court records.

Under questioning, Schoenfeld admitted she made two other bomb threats June 6: to the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and Rubio’s Office. She used the same cellphone to make all three bomb threats, authorities said in the federal court filing.

Authorities don’t discuss her motives for making the threats.

Five weeks later, Trump was shot at and survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the security breach that allowed the gunman to access the roof and fire during Trump’s rally.

“I can add that, in dealing with the Secret Service agents and office down here in Palm Beach, the dichotomy between the seriousness of these local agents when it comes to handling perceived threats to President Trump compared to the lackadaisical and, incompetent (at best) attitude/performance of the senior leadership of the Agency in Washington, D.C. cannot be starker,” Schoenfeld’s attorney Mark McMann said in a statement when reached for comment late Friday. “Even though we are in an adversarial position with the current case presently,  Ms. Schoenfeld and I have observed this to be true.”

The federal charges against Schoenfeld were first reported by Court Watch.

Schoenfeld’s bond was set at $25,000.