The sister of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett received what appeared to be a politically motivated bomb threat at her home in West Ashley, South Carolina, just outside of Charleston, multiple media outlets reported Wednesday.
Charleston police responded Monday morning to a threat regarding the residence of Amanda Coney Williams, the Charleston Post and Courier reported. Shortly afterward, officials determined the threat to be a false alarm after inspecting Coney Williams' mailbox. Barrett, 52, is the eldest of seven children and Coney Williams is one of the justice's five sisters.
At about 11 p.m. Saturday, an email was sent to Lori Gadson, executive assistant to Charleston County Sheriff Carl Ritchie, that read: "Using a 1x8-inch threaded galvanized pipe, end caps, a kitchen timer, some wires, metal clips and homemade black powder, I've constructed a pipe bomb which I recently placed in Amy Coney Barrett's sister's mailbox at her home at [address redacted], Charleston, SC [zip code redacted]. The device's detonation will be triggered as soon as the mailbox is next opened. Free Palestine!"
An incident report Tuesday from Charleston police contained incorrect information about who received the threat and when it was reported, Mark Ruppell, a sheriff's office spokesperson, told the Post and Courier. The report initially noted the family received the threat directly.
Gadson did not report the threat until she came into work on Monday and read the email, Ruppell said. She is not required to check her email on weekends and does not have a county-issued cellphone, he said. Gadson reported the threat to Ritchie within five minutes of starting her day.
"We feel she acted perfectly appropriate," Ruppell said.
Kevin Wheeler, public affairs officer for the FBI's Columbia, South Carolina, field office, told the Post and Courier that agents assisted city police.
The corrected police report also noted that Coney Williams' husband, David Williams, told police about a separate incident over the weekend that involved an unidentified person attempting to deliver pizzas at some households related to Barrett.
Barrett listed her sister as a potential conflict of interest should one of Coney Williams' cases come before the Supreme Court, the Post and Courier reported, citing the justice's U.S. Senate screening questionnaire. Barrett's sister is a civil attorney at Parker Poe, a regional law firm, and is among 275 attorneys in eight offices across the southeastern U.S. representing local governments and large companies.
Barrett was appointed to the high court in President Donald Trump's first term. She has recently faced criticism from conservatives for voting with the majority to uphold a lower-court judge's order for the Trump administration to release funding to contractors and recipients of grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in his annual year-end report in December, warned about a rising number of threats to the judiciary's independence, including calls for violence against judges and "dangerous" suggestions by elected officials to disregard court rulings with which they disagree.
In April, Neal Brij Sidhwaney, 43, of Fernandina Beach, Florida, was sentenced to 14 months in prison for calling the Supreme Court and threatening to kill Roberts in a profanity-laced voicemail.
In 2022, Nicholas Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, pleaded not guilty to a charge of trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. His trial is set to begin in June. Roske was arrested near Kavanaugh's Maryland home with a backpack that the Department of Justice said included a knife, a pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, and a hammer.
Newsmax reached out to the Supreme Court for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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