A Pearl City woman is facing federal criminal charges after allegedly posting more than 200 social media threats to kill the president of the United States as a way to draw attention to being a victim of human trafficking.
Rebecca Ann Folley, 48, aka “Becca Waters” was charged by federal criminal complaint April 2 with one count of making threats against the president and successors to the presidency, and one count of making illegal interstate communications.
On Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader granted the U.S. Department of Justice’s motion to detain Folley without bail at the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu.”
Folley is scheduled for a preliminary hearing May 16 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter.
She has a prior felony conviction in Texas in 1998 for injuring a child, and a 2021 misdemeanor assault charge in Hawaii, according to court records.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren W.K. Ching is prosecuting the case. Attorneys with the Federal Public Defender’s office who are representing Folley did not immediately respond to
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
requests for comment.
Folley allegedly told agents with the U.S. Secret Service that she was a trafficking victim, but law enforcement was not being responsive to her reports, so as a “cry for help” she researched “presidential threats act 2020” and “key words” to “trigger all red flags.”
She also claims that state and county officials are covering up human trafficking in Hawaii.
Then she allegedly sent “bad trigger words” hoping to be investigated so people would see that her reports were being ignored.
Like the man who allegedly planned Opens in a new tab to shoot Donald Trump during the campaign, Ryan Routh, Folley posted copies of her threats on the social media page of a county lawmaker, federal authorities say.
On Dec. 16, Secret Service agents were made aware of March 2, 2024, threats against President Joe Biden made by a Facebook profile of “BeccaWaters” that read “Going to kill the president (INSPECTOR GENERAL, I NEED YOU ASAP).”
On Dec. 18. a pair of Secret Service agents visited Folley at her Pearl City residence. Folley invited the agents onto the property and allegedly told them she knew why they were there.
Folley said she was on medication and receiving mental health treatment,
according to federal court records.
She said there was no response to her postings and agents told her their presence was the response.
“I was wondering how long, and honestly, I started bragging, I was like, I’ve got to be the only person in the United States history that’s ever been able to get away with 200 of these things on record,” Folley allegedly told the agents.
The agents told Folley to quit threatening the president of the United States.
On Christmas Eve, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Threat Operation Center told the Secret Service that Folley had emailed them evidence of her threats.
Folley allegedly continued her postings, sending them to prosecutors in Miami, Secret Service agents in Honolulu, and the social media pages of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, state, and county leaders.
On Jan. 25 she emailed the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office that “I posted MY PUBLIC PRESIDENTIAL DEATH THREATS ALL OVER MY HAWAII STATE ELECTED OFFICIAL’S PUBLIC
FACEBOOK AND IN EMAILS.”
Four days later, in the comment section of a livestream by the official POTUS Facebook account, “Becca Waters” posted, “I’M GOING TO KILL DONALD TRUMP” and “Going to kill president.”
The URL links to Folley’s alleged threats along with screen grabs of her emails to law enforcement and others are included in the 27 page criminal complaint.
On March 26 the same two Secret Service agents
returned to her Pearl City home.
“She knew agents told her not to continue making threats and admitted she did continue,” according to an affidavit. “When asked if she posted since she last talked to agents, (Folley replied) ‘yes.’”
She also told the agents “yes, I’m fully aware” when they asked her if she knew she was committing a federal crime.
“I swear on everything, I won’t do it no more. I just had to make sure that it wasn’t being ignored anymore,” she allegedly told the agents. “I tell people, you know, I don’t, I won’t hurt nobody, but I will use my words to motivate people because the moment I take it from verbal to actions, that’s when mental health issues come into play.”
