Minnesota man arrested for alleged murder-for-hire threat against AG Pam Bondi

We start right now with the alleged murder for hire plot targeting Attorney General Pam Bondi. A 29-year-old Minnesota man was arrested earlier this month after police say he posted that threat on TikTok. The FBI reportedly tipped off by another TikTok user to his post, offering a $45,000 bounty. That post had a photo of Bondi with a sniper scope red dot on her head. The suspect, Tyler Maxon Avalos, has ties to anarchist ideology, according to the FBI. He also has prior convictions for felony stalking, domestic assault, according to court documents. NBC News Chief Justice and National Affairs Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell joins us now. Kelly, what more are we learning about this plot? Well, I'm not even sure we can call it a plot. This is a threat, and he's been charged as making a threat over state lines, and that is the environment we're living in, where there is heated rhetoric. And the challenge for investigators is looking at when political speech and those kinds of things cross the line. And in this case, they have filed a charge of a federal count against Tyler Avalos, who's 29 years old from Minnesota. He does have some criminal history for felony stalking and domestic abuse. And in this case, by posting a very specific threat against the attorney general. And this was on TikTok. And there was the sort of visual that goes with it of using a target. That certainly escalates things. And it put a dollar amount of forty five thousand dollars. That is the extent of what we know based on the documents that have been filed thus far. And it was important to point out that the FBI official who presented this to the court said they have other information, but they were providing in this public document enough to establish the probable cause here. The Department of Justice is not commenting on this. That is at this point probably not surprising when you're talking about the security environment. Many officials across the federal government and as we've seen in state government as well, a real concern about trying to discern when a threat is angry language or when it is actually leading toward the potential for some action. We thank you for watching and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.