A federal affidavit says a university teaching assistant accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump after flipping a Turning Point USA table on campus ignored repeated warnings from federal agents about violent posts on his social media accounts.
The affidavit says Derek Lopez, 27, was interviewed by federal agents on Oct. 9 — eight days before his arrest on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property after a video of him toppling a Turning Point USA table at Illinois State University went viral. During that interview, agents repeatedly warned Lopez about the difference between protected speech under the First Amendment and communications that could be perceived as threats, the affidavit states.
The university later terminated Lopez from his teaching-assistant position on Oct. 20.
The affidavit describes several troubling posts that followed the Oct. 9 meeting. An Oct. 26 Instagram video on an account the FBI attributes to Lopez showed an unidentified man cocking a pistol, walking down a street and then pointing the gun as an image of Trump wearing a crown with red crosshairs appeared over his forehead. The FBI says that post remained on the Instagram page at the time the affidavit was filed.
The affidavit also cites an Oct. 27 post on X attributed to Lopez that read, “I’m gonna kill Donald Trump, idgaf.” That post, too, was still live on the account, according to the filing.
In another online exchange, Lopez allegedly commented on a post memorializing Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk — who was killed Sept. 10 on the Utah Valley University campus — claiming responsibility for the assassination. “Cry harder,” the comment read, according to the affidavit. “Every day, hundreds of frail little kids in palestine [sic] die. Charlie Kirk spoke out, not to END their suffering but IN FAVOR of it. That was his free speech. My free speech is this: I Derek S Lopez, killed him. I killed Charlie Kirk.”
The affidavit also says Lopez made an Instagram post with an image that read, “I stand with (punching) ICE (in the face).”
The document includes a summary of an Oct. 15 interview Lopez gave to Illinois State University police. During that conversation, he spoke about “Nazis” and “fascists” in the White House and said he had posted on social media about wanting to kill Nazis because he felt Nazism and fascism were on the rise. He reportedly told officers he did not personally want to kill people but that, in his view, “some powerful people should be killed.”
“When he posts he’s not very clear that he doesn’t want to kill them himself,” the affidavit notes, “but if it ‘scares’ people to be less of a Nazi or Fascist then it is okay.”
FBI Director Kash Patel condemned the alleged threats in a statement, calling them “heinous” and saying they have “no place in American society.” Patel said the case should serve as a warning that the FBI will investigate and seek justice for threats of violence against public officials or any American, and he thanked local law enforcement partners and federal agencies for their assistance.
