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The DOJ has officially filed charges against a 55-year-old man accused of assaulting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at a town hall event in Minneapolis.

Getting into it: According to federal court filings, the man charged is Anthony Kazmierczak, a 55-year-old Minnesota resident who was arrested at the scene after lunging toward Rep. Ilhan Omar during a public town hall and spraying her with a liquid later identified as a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar. Authorities say Kazmierczak used a syringe to spray the substance, which stained Omar’s clothing and may have reached her face and right eye area. As he did this, Kazmierczak shouted, “She’s not resigning. You’re splitting Minnesotans apart,” before being tackled by law enforcement.

The Department of Justice alleges that Kazmierczak “forcibly assaulted, opposed, impeded, and intimidated” a federal official while she was engaged in her official duties, triggering a federal criminal charge that carries a potential sentence of up to eight years in prison if convicted. He was initially booked on a state charge of third-degree assault, but the DOJ’s filing elevates the case by framing the incident as an attack on a member of Congress in the course of her work. The FBI, which has taken over the investigation, cited both the physical act itself and Kazmierczak’s prior conduct as grounds for the federal charge.

Court affidavits outline a history involving Kazmierczak, including prior threatening statements about Omar. According to investigators, Kazmierczak had previously said “somebody should kill” the congresswoman. The filings also reference his past social media activity, which included politically charged posts critical of Omar. In interviews cited in the reporting, Kazmierczak’s own brother described him as a “right-wing extremist” with a long-standing fixation on Omar and deep-seated hostility toward the Somali community.

This all comes as Congresswoman Omar has directly linked the incident to a broader pattern of threats she says intensify whenever President Trump publicly attacks her. Trump, for his part, dismissed the seriousness of the incident and speculated that Omar may have staged it, calling her a “fraud” and saying, “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”