Robert Ivers was described as a North Dakota man at the time he was charged with threatening to kill Minnesota federal district judge Wilhelmina “Mimi” Wright in 2018. convicted of threatening to murder Minnesota federal district Judge Wilhelmina “Mimi” Wright in 2019. I wrote fondly about Judge Wright at the time of her confirmation in 2016.
Following his conviction for threatening to murder Judge Wright, Ivers was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release. He had apparently become a Minnesota man somewhere along the way. At the time of his sentencing by Judge Pratt, the Star Tribune described him as a “former Hopkins mayoral candidate.”
Iowa federal district Judge Robert Pratt presided over Ivers’s trial in St. Paul. Judge Pratt sat on the case by designation given the threat involved in the case. It is difficult to ascertain why Judge Pratt’s sentence of Ivers was so light. Indeed, once he was out of prison, Ivers repeatedly failed to abide by the conditions of his release and his probation was revoked, if not for long enough. The Eighth Circuit wrote in 2021:
Ivers threatened and harassed his North Dakota probation officer until he refused to supervise Ivers any longer, and then he intentionally entered Minnesota even though his new probation officer warned him not to do so without permission. He was then arrested, and the district court revoked his supervised release and sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment and thirty months’ supervised release. The court also conditioned release on Ivers’s residing in a North Dakota reentry center.
When Ivers began his new term of supervision at the residential reentry center, he refused to speak with his probation officer, refused to obtain health insurance so he could participate in mental health treatment, and got expelled from the reentry center for not complying with its rules. So when the court revoked his supervised release yet again, it imposed another term of supervision along with the condition that he stay 180 days in a North Dakota residential reentry center.
Ivers kept it up. In 2022 he was charged with threatening to murder his probation officer.
Unfortunately, Ivers made it to Minnesota and the move did nothing to mitigate his behavior. If anything, it aggravated it. Yesterday Ivers was charged with threatening to kill Judge Pratt, the attorney who represented him in the case involving Judge Wright, and other federal judges. The details are horrifying. According to Ivers, they are calculated to horrify. Alpha News covers the charges here.
The Department of Justice press release summarizes the current case against Ivers:
[O]n September 3, 2025, law enforcement responded to the Wayzata Library in Wayzata, Minnesota, based on a report of a man printing off copies of a manifesto entitled, “How to Kill a Federal Judge.” This man was Robert Ivers. Law enforcement learned that Ivers showed the manifesto to library staff including a page of the manifesto that talked about killing children and had a picture of a gun on it. Ivers also gave library staff a three-page “flyer” advertising his manifesto before he left the library. The flyer stated that the manifesto “is designed to teach extremists on how to plan, train, hunt, stalk and kill anyone including judges, their family members, politicians and more!” It also advertised that the “harsh reality is that judges are going to die.”
In investigating the case, law enforcement learned that, on August 28, 2025, Ivers had been reported for concerning behavior at an Episcopal church in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Ivers attended multiple services and told church members that he planned to attend upcoming church events on September 7 (a family picnic and potluck), September 11 (a blessing of children going back to school, with state legislators in attendance), and September 14 (an annual baptism service). Church staff searched Ivers online and discovered his history included past threats of violence, a felony conviction, and racist commentary. Church staff then contacted law enforcement.
On the evening of September 3, 2025, the Wayzata Police Department located Ivers and arrested him. During his transport, Ivers claimed that he was having a heart attack. Law enforcement transferred Ivers to the hospital from the jail. Ivers was subsequently released from the hospital later that night.
Law enforcement searched Ivers’s vehicle and found, among other things: (1) a photo of the former Pope with crosshairs centered on his head; (2) twenty copies of a spiral bound printed book titled, “How to Kill a Federal Judge” by Robert Ivers; (3) multiple copies of flyers advertising the contents of the book; (4) lists of federal judges; (5) a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook; (6) a white foam box containing a toy replica firearm, a box of Co2 cartridges, and a container of pellets; and (7) a box of fireworks.
On September 5, 2025, Wayzata Police Department re-arrested Ivers. Following his arrest, Ivers was interviewed. Ivers admitted to showing a copy of his manifesto to library staff. Law enforcement asked Ivers if he thought his book would have scared anybody. In response, Ivers shouted: “It was supposed to!”
Ivers’s manifesto is 236 pages long. The cover page is entitled, “How to Kill a Federal Judge” and features a photo of a man holding a rifle. In his manifesto, Ivers focused on the perceived wrongs done to him by the judicial system. He discussed these wrongs—and his anticipated revenge—at length. The manifesto contains various types of writings and many disturbing sketches, apparently drawn by Ivers. The manifesto also contains handwritten threats to kill, including threats to kill judges, as well as their children and pets. Ivers made clear his purpose was to instill fear. He wrote, “If this book doesn’t instill fear in you then your [sic] already dead.”
I have embedded the (illustrated) criminal complaint filed against Ivers yesterday below. Despite his age, this guy needs to be confined for a very long time.
