Florida woman arrested for threat to kill Trump

Giving you a live look right now at Daytona Beach from our Hard Rock Hotel camera, again pointed toward the Ocean Center, where we know a line has already gathered. Still several, what, four hours out from doors opening at the rally where President Trump is going to be a little bit later today. There will be a number of speakers, a number of Republican candidates who will be at that. Events in Volusia County. Meanwhile, we're continuing to track the breaking news of a woman arrested, accused of threatening to kill President Trump, Alison Albro, her name, 21 years old, from Daytona Beach, now facing charges of written threats to kill and unlawful use of a communications device. Talking about, according to investigators, making a threat that she ended up saying that she didn't have access to a gun and was just making a joke, but obviously something that investigators take very seriously. And joining us live now to talk about this from the law enforcement angle of things and perspective, former sheriff's detective and investigator James Copenhaver joining us live now. Jamie, thanks for joining us. Good to be with you, Garrett. Thank you. So first of all, just give me your initial thoughts, your initial reaction to what we know about this case so far. Joking or not joking, don't write written threats of the sitting president. You're going to get a knock. I mean, it's not surprising. They're very proactive in these types of investigations, Garrett. Is this the kind of thing that investigators are constantly looking for or maybe waiting for tips? How does this sometimes play out as far as finding things like this or being flagged to them? Is there technology? How does that work? All of the above. Let's take this particular incident in Daytona Beach. Trump announced a couple of days ago he was going to be live at a rally up in Volusia County. That apparatus will move prior to the president's movement. So you're going to have counter surveillance. You're going to have combing through social media accounts days leading up to these events where the president's making an appearance, Garrett. And any type of threatening messages that they find on social Social media, they're going to certainly. Follow up on the Volusia County Sheriff's Office may have kicked this one off and then turned it over to the Secret Service. But all of the above on any of these pre-planned rallies, they're going to go out and vet the community and messages. And so when there's a message like this, when they come across something like this, like you said, you're going to get a knock on your door. I would imagine there's a lot of coordination at that point between a number of different. Agency Secret Service, I would imagine, is involved when it comes to things like this, in addition to, as we know, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. Yeah, as soon as you intercept that threatening message, whether it's written or oral communication, you immediately start the process. You start identifying the origin of that threat. In this case, Ms. Albrecht was identified very quickly. And then you're going to do a complete background dossier on her. It even gets broader, though. They're going to go out and tag her associates in that background to find out if they're... Behind any written or oral communications as it relates to threats to the president. So it's literally a full court press once this is established and it's initiated. And it doesn't stop until you, like you said, you get the knock on the door by the Secret Service. And what the sheriff says she told them was that she does not have access to a gun, that this was a joke. So why then still face these charges if it is a joke? If she doesn't have access to a gun, if it wasn't, maybe if it was not actually a credible threat, And we're certainly thankful it wasn't. I mean, it's a precedent, right? So, okay, it's a joke. The joke's on her, by the way, probably a no bond or a very high bond. But anytime you have anyone making. Threats, not your political bantering that we see leading up to the midterms, but when you actually write a written threat on the sitting president, joke or no jokes, you're going to be charged. Here's why, Garrett. Had they not effected this arrest and they allowed that to continue on social media, you would have copycats. You would have other people. And the problem is, who's real and who's not real in terms of their threats? So they have to take them all serious, even joking ones. If it turns out to be a joke, sad, sad, sad decision on Ms. Albrecht's behalf of joking like that. Well, it's the kind of thing that I would imagine law enforcement takes especially seriously given the prior threats and attempts against our current president, President Trump. Yeah, I mean, it's just not the president. It's any of our lawmakers. I mean, good night. We've seen the violence. You and I have covered these violent acts of our sitting law members or members of Congress. And the discord is just horrible. The atmosphere, it's in the midterm section. But you still have these anti-Donald Trumpers that are going to continue to go after him. They just don't like the name Trump. So we've got that. Certainly, you have the right to express your freedom of thoughts, but it can't be in a written. message of causing harm or killing the president. To go on your point, we've just seen anti-missile batteries being set up around Mar-a-Lago. We're seeing, I think, two or three barges of those anti-missile launchers set up around the president's home in Florida. They just currently, I think, updated the missile systems at the White House. So it's an involving threat that... Continues to, I think they're certainly afraid of something, Garrett. So they're not letting their guard down with these missile batteries. Now, I'm curious, given this threat, this arrest that was made, does that change at all or increase the security posture? Even though we said, as we know from investigators saying this isn't necessarily a credible threat based on what they've learned, this person is now in custody, making her first appearance in court this afternoon. But does this change at all the security posture or increase it in some ways for the event this afternoon, this evening, Or are things already... At the top level, no matter what? I can assure you it's at the top level. I was looking at the flight radar prior to coming onto the air with you and already saw the tanker up over that area. So they're refueling perhaps fighter jets. They accompanied the president. So nothing's gonna change whether it turns out to be credible or not credible in terms of Ms. Albro, in terms of guarding the president and keeping that presence at this rally this afternoon. And like I said, This has been in the plannings for several days, Garrett. For the security apparatus and they have to move prior to the president arriving to secure the area. And they did a very good job of picking up this message. Let's hope it does not turn out to be credible and she was joking. But it's a good signal and a good statement from the Secret Service. They're not gonna tolerate any of these written threats, joking or not joking. And you kind of alluded to this a few minutes ago, but you and I have talked many times Political violence and the climate that we're in now, just given the way things are, the Secret Service or any agency, you know, can't not take it seriously. I know that's a double negative, but, you know, they have to. Yeah, I mean, just look at the sitting members of Congress and the Congress people that travel about. We're in the midterm election season, so we see sitting Congress members traveling to campaign for other people. And it's not just the sitting president. Just recently here locally, Randy Fine, congressional member, had a threat. An arrest was effected in that case. So it's all the way down to the school board members. They're all receiving this Not just hate mail or hate letters, there's some threatening communications that are going on from school board members all the way up to the Senate president, which we're talking about today. So it's the climate's the election season, Garrett, but we've got to show some discourse. We've got to tone the rhetoric down on both sides of the aisle, in my opinion. Jamie Copenhaver, former sheriff's detective and investigator. We always appreciate your analysis and sharing your law enforcement experience with us. Thanks so much for taking the time and joining us here on Fox Orlando Live today. Thank you, sir.