Left: Donald Trump speaks at the annual Road to Majority conference in Washington, DC, in June 2024 (Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP). Right: Nathalie Jones (Justice Department/Rod Hughes).
A grand jury has found “no probable cause” to indict a woman who allegedly threatened to “sacrificially kill” President Donald Trump as the evidence against her was “weak” and she had “no intent to harm anyone,” according to a new filing from her defense lawyers.
Nathalie Jones, 50, formerly of Indiana, can walk free now after being originally charged with threatening to kill, kidnap or injure the president and transmitting kidnapping threats using interstate commerce in connection to a series of alleged threats she hurled over social media. Jones” attorneys disclosed the grand jury decision in a motion filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to modify her release conditions.
Jones, who now lives in New York, was let out of jail by Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg last week and allowed to return to her apartment in New York City, just days after a magistrate judge ordered the opposite and asked for a mental health evaluation. Jones allegedly has schizophrenia and her public defenders have pointed to her diagnosis as the main reason for her alleged actions, as have longtime friends of hers in letters of support for Jones’ release.
In the Monday motion, Jones’ lawyers echoed what Boasberg said in court last week about U.S. Secret Service agents visiting with Jones on Aug. 15 and speaking to her about the alleged threats, but not arresting her for some reason — which Boasberg found odd, telling the court: “Doesn’t that kind of suggest they didn’t take those threats that seriously?”
Jones’ lawyers wrote, “She informed them that she planned to travel to the District of Columbia to attend an event and a protest. Agents neither arrested her nor suggested that she should not travel to the District of Columbia for the protest. On August 16, 2025, while she was in the District of Columbia, agents contacted her, and she agreed to meet them. She repeatedly told them she had no intent to harm anyone, including the president, and was in D.C. to attend a peaceful protest.”
At the agents’ request, Jones allegedly consented to a search of her car and disclosed her mental health records, per her lawyers. “She possessed no firearms or weapons of any kind, and there is no evidence that she ever attempted to possess a firearm or weapon of any kind,” the motion notes. “Later that day, based on statements she made on August 15 and previously posted on social media, agents arrested her.”
Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, also noted how Jones was not in possession of any firearms in his reasoning for releasing her.
“If she had a gun with her this case is easy,” Boasberg said, according to local CBS affiliate WUSA. “But the question is, why shouldn’t we consider this the rantings of someone with a mental illness with no ability to carry this out?”
Jones was initially denied bond over her alleged threats by U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya on Aug. 21 and ordered to undergo a competency evaluation while behind bars. Boasberg chose to reverse the decision in an Aug. 27 order, reportedly telling the court a day earlier that he didn’t feel Jones posed a threat to the public.
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Jones’ alleged threats are said to have begun on Aug. 2, when an Instagram account later connected to Jones had made comments about Trump. According to the Justice Department, she called for his removal from office, labeled his administration a dictatorship, and blamed him for the extent of the loss of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The posts continued until Aug. 9, the DOJ said, but it was comments Jones allegedly made on Facebook that specifically captured law enforcement’s attention.
“I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present,” an account tied to Jones wrote to the FBI on Aug. 6, according to the DOJ. Eight days later, in a comment meant for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Lafayette, Indiana, woman allegedly wrote, “please arrange the arrest and removal ceremony of POTUS Trump as a terrorist on the American People from 10-2pm at the White House on Saturday, August 16th, 2025.”
On Aug. 15, the U.S. Secret Service allegedly spoke with Jones in a “voluntary” interview. It was here where she allegedly made the “terrorist” and “Nazi” disparagements and allegedly provided more specific details about what she would do if she got the chance.
According to the DOJ, Jones said she would kill Trump at “the compound” if necessary and that she had a “bladed object” that she would use as her weapon to “carry out her mission of killing” the president.
Furthermore, she reportedly stated her desire to “avenge all the lives lost during the Covid-19 pandemic,” for which she blamed Trump’s first administration and its position on vaccines.
Boasberg, like the magistrate judge, ordered Jones to undergo a mental health evaluation as a condition of her release. She was going to be on in-home detention — monitored by GPS — while staying at her apartment in New York before the grand jury decision came down, per court records.
“One of the factors the court considered in determining the conditions of release was the nature of the case and the weight of the evidence,” Jones’ lawyers said Monday in their motion.
“A grand jury has now found no probable cause to indict Ms. Jones on the charged offenses,” they explained. “Given that finding, the weight of the evidence is weak. The government may intend to try again to obtain an indictment, but the evidence has not changed and no indictment is likely. For this reason the Court should release Ms. Jones on her personal recognizance to appear if required.”
Longtime friends and associates, in their letters of support to the court, described “Nath” as someone who “could never really physically hurt anyone.”
According to one pal, “Her social media posts were becoming more aggressive than usual with the new administration, but seeing as she would tag different government agencies and try to recruit them to sell solar panels with her, I didn’t take them seriously.”
Another described her as a “mentally ill creative writer” who is “not a physical threat to anyone.” The friend said, “This is a shocking and embarrassing wake up call for her.”
The Justice Department, meanwhile, disagreed with Jones’ supporters and noted in court filings how she allegedly claimed she was fully “willing” to take Trump’s life.
“‘I literally told FBI in five states today that I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea,'” Jones allegedly said, according to a DOJ memorandum in support of her pretrial detention. “What makes Defendant’s conduct extremely troubling is that she took steps in furtherance of these threatening comments and militaristic references,” the memo added.
The Justice Department did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment Tuesday.
Conrad Hoyt contributed to this report.Â
