Former Coast Guard lieutenant, Antifa member released from jail after threatening to kill Trump

The former US Coast Guard officer and self-identified Antifa member who was charged with making threats to kill President Donald Trump online has been released from prison after posting bail. He was released on the conditions that he have no firearms in his home and that all his internet use will be monitored.

Peter Stinson, 63, who is also trained as a sharpshooter, was arrested last week on charges of making threats to kill the president after he released a number of social media posts to his X and Bluesky accounts, including one that said Trump had to be "Luigied," in reference to the UnitedHealthcare CEO assassination suspect, Luigi Mangione.

Between April 2020 and June 11, 2025, Stinson, who served in the Coast Guard for 33 years, made a series of threats against Trump. In one example from 2020, court documents said that Stinson wrote, responding to someone saying Trump should be sued, "Somebody ought to do more than sue the orange mf's a**," and then added, "It involves a rifle and a scope, but I can't talk about it here."

In a hearing on Wednesday, federal judge Ivan Davis, however, said that the Antifa member could be released on bail to his home if he disclosed where his father’s firearms were as well as other conditions, per the Daily Mail. 

Prosecutors opposed the move from Davis, arguing in the hearing that Stinson is "dangerous" to the president as well as the public at large. "How much collateral damage is appropriate? If, say, two of the top three targets can be completed, what sort of collateral damage is ok," Stinson had said in a social media post in February earlier this year. In a follow-up post, the Antifa member wrote online, I’d say other fascists and [orange emoticon] sycophants are fair game for sure."

When federal officers raided Stinson's home in Oakton, Virginia, they found two BB guns as well as an empty safe in his truck. He was also, however, put in charge of his father's rifle, and federal agents were not able to locate the firearm.

Stinson is banned from having a passport or other international travel documents and is on house arrest with the exception of travel sanctioned by the court and cannot have "contact or affiliation with any extremist organizations."

The Antifa member has been told that if he engages in other criminal behavior amounting to a felony before his trial, he will face an additional 10 years in prison as well as a fine of $250,000. His defense lawyers have argued that Stinson's posts were "political advocacy" protected by the First Amendment.

Attorney Geremy Kamens argued that Stinson was a "devoted father of five children" with "deep ties to his community" who had no other significant criminal history. The lawyer argued Stinson "repeatedly disclaimed his own ability to carry out violence," which he said "demonstrates" the posts were only "political hyperbole."