Anthony Kazmierczak will spend 14 months behind bars for targeting Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar during a town hall
The man who sprayed vinegar on left-wing US Representative Ilhan Omar during a town hall in Minneapolis was sentenced to 14 months in prison on Thursday.
Omar, a Democratic politician of Somali origin, was speaking to residents on January 27 when Anthony Kazmierczak rushed toward the podium and sprayed her with liquid from a syringe. The assailant was quickly tackled by security.
According to witnesses, he shouted at Omar, “You’re splitting Minnesotans apart.” The liquid was later identified as apple cider vinegar.
“I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win,” Omar wrote on X following the incident.
🚨JUST IN🚨
The DOJ has filed federal charges against a man accused of spraying Ilhan Omar with apple cider vinegar.
Anthony Kazmierczak was arrested and now faces a charge of forcibly assaulting, opposing, impeding, and intimidating a federal official.pic.twitter.com/ZOUBOB4FF2
Kazmierczak reached a deal with prosecutors and apologized to the congresswoman. According to court documents, he had “a history of mental and emotional health concerns” and other health issues related to his 2022 Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. Judge Joan Ericksen said during sentencing that his actions were premeditated and not “a spur-of-the-moment act.”
BREAKING: Anthony Kazmierczak, the man who sprayed U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar with vinegar in Minneapolis has been sentenced to 14 months in prison. pic.twitter.com/XH9URc5gA6
Violence against public figures has increased in the US in recent years, with Republicans and Democrats blaming each other’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric.
A vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, Omar has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and accused him of “actively committing genocide against the Palestinian people.” She has condemned Israel’s war in Gaza and supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.
In 2019, Israeli authorities barred her and fellow Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib from entering the country. Omar has frequently faced accusations of invoking anti-Semitic tropes in her remarks about Israel and its supporters, and in 2019, the advocacy group StopAntisemitism named her its “Antisemite of the Year” following a public vote.
Omar has denied accusations of anti-Semitism but apologized for some of her past statements, saying her “intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole.”
