One of the many federal judges involved in an immigration case with the Trump administration has released a TikTok user who, federal authorities allege, put a $45,000 bounty on the head of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Magistrate Douglas Micko released Tyler Maxon Avalos on a personal recognizance bond, court documents show.
The case against Avalos is solid. Micko’s lax conditions for release suggest that Avalos, a violent criminal with a lengthy criminal record, can easily flee the country if he has half a brain.
Avalos is the third person arrested this month for soliciting the murder of a federal official.
FBI Affidavit on Avalos
Whether Micko knew it, he released a dangerous criminal who was, the FBI affidavit says, planning to murder Bondi.
Avalos’ trouble began on October 9, when a TikTok user in Detroit reported the plot to the FBI National Threat Operations Center. The user reported “a threatening post against United States Attorney General Pam Bondi that had come across the user’s TikTok feed,” the affidavit alleges:
The TikTok user reported the threat as a murder for hire of US Attorney General Pam Bondi. The TikTok user reported that the threatening post was “Imposing a hit on Pam bondi for $45,000 posting it on tiktok his user name is @liminalvoidslip.”
Screenshots of the post show a photo “with a sniper-scope red dot on AG Bondi’s forehead,” the affidavit alleges.
The caption says “WANTED: Pam Bondi” / “REWARD: 45,000” / “DEAD OR ALIVE” / “(PREFERABLY DEAD).”
Strangely, the screenshot shows a comment that says “*cough cough*” / “when they don’t serve us then what?”
Avalos’ TikTok page “was displayed as W@ckØ,” an anarchy symbol. The page linked to “An Anarchist FAQ book pinned to his page,” the affidavit alleges.
As well, the affidavit notes, Avalos has “has a multi-state conviction history including a July 2022 felony stalking conviction from Dakota County, an August 2016 felony third-degree domestic battery from Polk County, Florida, and an April 2016 misdemeanor domestic assault from Dakota County, which appears to have been reduced from a felony domestic assault by strangulation charge.”
Minnesota court records show Avalos’ lengthy criminal records, including the conviction for misdemeanor stalking and two dismissed felony counts: “Domestic Assault (Intentionally Inflict or Attempt to Inflict Bodily Harm)” and “Assault by Strangulation.”
Avalos has also faced paternity and child support cases, and has multiple driving infractions.
Mickos Unmoved
Avalos’ previous convictions for stalking and the two dismissed felony counts don’t seem to have fazed Micko.
On October 22, he sent Avalos on his merry way with the usual conditions that won’t stop him from doing anything. All Avalos had to do was sign on the bottom line to say he’d be a good boy. Among the conditions are not possessing a “firearm, destructive device or other weapon” and no alcohol “at all.” But that should be unsurprising for Micko, whose signature on the order setting conditions for Avalos’ release is written in no known language.
In April, Micko ordered the Trump administration to explain why it had arrested a Turkish alien who was a student at the University of Minnesota.
Dogukan Gunaydin, “a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, was arrested after a visa revocation by the State Dept. related to a prior criminal history for a DUI,” the Department of Homeland Security explained on X:
Contrary to the mainstream media’s quick speculation that he was arrested due to his involvement in student protests, his protest activity had nothing to do with his detainment.
Indeed, reported CBS affiliate WCCO, “according to court records, in the March 2024 petition to enter a guilty plea in the DWI, signed by Gunyadin, it states: I understand that if I am not a citizen of the United States, my plea of guilty may result in deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, or denial of naturalization as a United States citizen.”
Also not surprisingly, a federal judge later ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Gunyadin because the agency violated his rights under the Fifth Amendment.
Third Major Threat
Avalos isn’t alone in being arrested for soliciting the assassination of a federal official.
Three days before the threat to Bondi appeared in TikTok, federal agents arrested Latin Kings gang member Juan Espinoza Martinez outside Chicago for soliciting the murder of U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino. Martinez, an illegal alien from Mexico, offered $2,000 for information about Bovino, and $10,000 to anyone who murdered him, authorities allege.
About the same time as Avalos’ TikTok post, another showed up soliciting the murder of ICE agents for $10,000. Agents arrested Mexican illegal alien Eduardo Aguilar for the crime.
After federal authorities arrested Martinez, they revealed that the Mexican cartels have created a three-tiered bounty program to end in the murder of ICE agents.
The cartels “have issued explicit instructions to U.S.-based sympathetics, including street gangs in Chicago, to monitor, harass, and assassinate federal agents” to stop the raids for jailing or deporting illegal-alien criminals, DHS revealed.
The bounties increase in a three-tiered structure:
$2,000 for gathering intelligence or doxxing agents (including photos and family details).
$5,000–$10,000 for kidnapping or non-lethal assaults on standard ICE/CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officers.
Up to $50,000 for the assassination of high-ranking officials.
In Chicago, two hate-ICE radicals attacked Border Patrol agents by trapping and ramming the agents’ vehicle, prosecutors allege. One of the two tried to run over an agent, who was forced to fire five shots at the oncoming vehicle.
