Trump DOJ Caves to Elon Musk With Wild Punishment for Tesla Protester
Attorney General Pam Bondi is seeking 20 years for a Colorado man who allegedly firebombed one of Elon Musk’s Tesla dealerships—in a blatantly political stunt to chase down dissidents.
Bondi announced Monday that federal prosecutors were seeking the decades-long sentence for 24-year-old Cooper Jo Frederick, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of throwing an incendiary device between two vehicles outside of a Tesla dealership in Loveland, Colorado, on March 7.
“All of these cases are a serious threat to public safety, therefore, there will be no negotiating,” Bondi said in a video statement posted to X, clearly intended to have a chilling effect on the nationwide spate of vandalism.
Bondi claimed that justice was coming for those involved in the so-called “wave of domestic terrorism” against Tesla, owned by the Trump administration’s resident billionaire bureaucrat.
This appears to be an extreme sentencing for a federal firebombing case. In April 2024, a Wisconsin man was sentenced to 90 months, or about seven and a half years, for attacking a building with a Molotov cocktail in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Another man was sentenced to nine years for firebombing a Planned Parenthood and plotting other attacks in grievance of a race war.
Clearly, Bondi is waging a political battle as much as a legal one, despite her promises that she would not act merely as an operative for Donald Trump.
Musk has continued to complain about how much money Tesla is losing while he serves as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which intends to slash government spending through mass layoffs and the gutting of essential services and agencies. DOGE is currently sifting through the Social Security Administration, creating widespread access issues for the millions of Americans who rely on it.
Tesla shares were down more than 7 percent Monday and have plummeted 35 percent so far this year.
Organizers held a Tesla Takedown Global Day of Action Saturday, and held rallies at over 200 Tesla locations, including close to 50 in California.