60-Year-Old Woman Jailed for Making Bomb Threats Against Trump After She Watched ‘Too Much MSNBC’

A 60-year-old woman was sentenced to over a year in prison after she threatened to kill President-elect Donald Trump in June 2024. Martha Jane Schoenfeld detonated two bombs at two different Trump properties with the aim of causing harm to the billionaire politician. As a result, U.S. District Court Judge Raag Singhal ordered her to spend 13 months in a federal correctional facility, as per court documents obtained by Law&Crime.

Schoenfeld was presented at court following her arrest on July 12 where her attorney Mark McMann defended her by reportedly blaming her obsession with watching cable news. “This was a lady in a condo that was watching too much MSNBC and got carried away,” he said, taking the probation and embarrassment as the legitimate punishment. 

The prosecutors were opting for less strict punishment, suggesting only probation for the old lady; they initially negotiated a plea while agreeing to drop the charge of a second threat made to the former president after Schoenfeld pleaded guilty to one count of threatening. If not, she would have faced a prison sentence of 20 years. In addition, the prosecutors had also ruled out a prison sentence for probation. But Judge Singhal, who was appointed by Trump, disregarded their agreement and sanctioned the 13-month-long sentence to the senior citizen. 

On June 6, the woman dialed up Trump’s International Golf Club at Palm Beach, Florida, with a questionable voicemail that fell into the hands of the prosecutors. “Hi … I was, wanted to speak to someone, but I guess not. But just to let you know, I just happened to stay there a couple days ago and there is a bomb I left on the site. So hopefully you will get everyone evacuated except for Trump. Bye,” Schoenfeld could be heard saying on the call. Federal agents traced her call and retrieved her address in Boca Raton. They conducted a noncustodial interview where she admitted to her actions after some initial hesitation. 

But that was not all. Soon after the federal agents left Schoenfeld’s house, information of another bomb threat at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas reached them. Again, it was linked to the same phone number as before, i.e., Schoenfeld’s. She “eventually admitted that she had placed a bomb threat call using the same number to Trump International Hotel” after denying having made the threat. 

As it appears, it was not the first time the mother of two had been making such threats to Republican politicians. She later revealed that she made a similar bomb threat call to the Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s office. But the consequences did not seem as intense. Only a day before her threats, Trump had saved himself from another assassination attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.