U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, a liberal federal appointee, has granted pretrial release to 22-year-old Penelope Convertino, who is accused of threatening to assassinate U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
According to The Tennessee Star, Penelope R. Convertino, who was reportedly born a male, allegedly left death threats against Senator Marsha Blackburn in a voicemail on May 30.
“My name is mother**ker and I’m gonna kill Marsha Blackburn,” the voicemail said. “I’m gonna shoot her with a gun. I’m gonna blow up her head on national TV. She will literally have brains splattered behind her because she will not be a person. She will be a dead f**king body,” the voicemail stated.
(Disclaimer: The Gateway Pundit has not independently verified the claims regarding Convertino’s biological details reported by outside sources.)
According to the press release on August 30:
“Penelope R. Convertino, age 22, of Murfreesboro, has been charged by criminal complaint with making a threat to murder a federal official with the intent to impede, intimidate, and interfere with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn while she was engaged in the performance of her official duties, announced Acting United States Attorney Robert E. McGuire for the Middle District of Tennessee.
“Our public officials should be able to do their jobs without receiving vile death threats,” said Acting United States Attorney Robert E. McGuire. “Threatening public officials with deadly violence cannot and will not be tolerated. We will not hesitate to hold those who make these kinds of violent threats accountable for their crimes.”
According to court documents, on Friday, May 30, 2025, a voice message was left on the voicemail for Senator Blackburn’s Nashville satellite Senate office. One of Senator Blackburn’s staff listened to the voicemail the following Monday. In it, the caller said, “My name is mother**ker and I’m gonna kill Marsha Blackburn. I’m gonna shoot her with a gun. I’m gonna blow up her head on national TV. She will literally have brains splattered behind her because she will not be a person. She will be a dead f**king body.”
Convertino was arrested earlier today by FBI agents.
If convicted, Convertino faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.”
Instead of ensuring the safety of an elected official and her constituents, Judge Holmes ordered Convertino’s release, continuing a disturbing trend of leniency toward dangerous offenders with politically fashionable identities.
The Tennessee Star reported:
Holmes, the federal magistrate who ordered Penelope Convertino released on Friday, is notably the same magistrate who ordered the pretrial release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged human smuggler who the Trump administration wants deported to Uganda.
The magistrate is not the only overlap between the case against Penelope Convertino and immigration cases.
Mary-Kathryn Harcombe, the public defender assigned to the case, is considered an “immigration specialist” in Nashville’s public defender office, and “writes and presents frequently about the interaction between criminal and immigration law in Davidson County and Tennessee,” according to the Tennessee Bar Association.
Harcombe also previously served as the Legal Director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), the Nashville nonprofit who recently sued to obtain records related to the May operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which saw nearly 200 illegal immigrants arrested.
Blackburn acknowledged the death threat prosecutors attributed to Penelope Convertino for the first time on Monday, when the senator said the arrest would not stall her work for Tennesseans.
“My focus remains on serving the people of Tennessee, and I will not be intimidated or deterred by those who seek to silence me,” said Blackburn.
