Scott, 52, was immediately taken into custody after the verdicts were read on Thursday, according to online court records, leaving no way to reach him for comment later that evening.
Jurors found Scott guilty of felony identity theft and witness intimidation, the Associated Press reported, after a three-day trial in Milwaukee County in which Scott represented himself. The jury acquitted him on other counts tied to a 2023 incident but convicted him on at least one endangerment-related charge, records summarized by AP show.
Prosecutors said Ramon Morales Reyes was riding his bike in Milwaukee in September 2023 when Scott approached him, kicked him off the bicycle, and stabbed Morales Reyes with a box cutter before taking the bike and leaving. Scott was arrested hours later, but federal immigration authorities later took Morales Reyes into custody after officials said the victim received threats that authorities traced back to Scott.
Investigators determined, according to court documents summarized by AP, that Morales Reyes could not have written the letters that threatened Trump because Morales Reyes does not speak English well, could not write in English, and because investigators said the handwriting and other writing in the letters did not match. While Scott was in jail, prosecutors said he made calls about letters that needed to be mailed and a plan to involve U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement so his trial could get dismissed, and that he also admitted to police that he wrote the letters.
The AP report said the letters were written in a way that posed as Morales Reyes and threatened to kill Trump at a rally. The letters were sent to state and federal officials, and the federal immigration action came in May, after officials took Morales Reyes into custody when he dropped off his daughter at school. The report also said Wisconsin online court records did not show criminal cases involving Morales Reyes.
Kristi Noem, the DHS secretary, publicly shared the case through social media in conjunction with an excerpt of a letter authorities said Morales Reyes wrote in English, AP reported. The report said the White House and Trump supporters highlighted Scott’s arrest as a success in what supporters described as a crackdown on immigration.
AP said a DHS news release that included Morales Reyes’ photo was still posted but now includes a disclaimer stating that Morales Reyes is no longer under investigation for threatening Trump, though he remains in ICE custody pending deportation. The release, as described by AP, also says Morales Reyes entered the United States illegally nine times between 1998 and 2005 and has a criminal record that includes arrests involving felony hit-and-run, property damage and disorderly conduct with a domestic-abuse modifier.
Morales Reyes’ attorney, Cain Oulahan, told AP that Morales Reyes was released on $7,500 bond in June and is currently living with his family in Milwaukee. Oulahan said Morales Reyes has applied for a U-visa, which allows certain crime victims and their family members to remain in the country, but that the process could take years. Oulahan also said that background checks turned up nothing.
In the Milwaukee case, AP said Scott faced separate charges in connection with the bike incident, including armed robbery, battery and reckless endangerment, and that the jury acquitted him on robbery and battery counts but found him guilty on endangerment. Court records described by AP also say prosecutors charged Scott in 2022 with being a party to burglary, he was out on bail in that case when the bike incident occurred, and prosecutors later added bail-jumping counts; jurors found him guilty on one bail-jumping count and acquitted him on the remaining two.
AP reported that, in total, Scott faces up to 26 years in the state prison system when he is sentenced on Feb. 27, and that the burglary charge remains pending. Morales Reyes’ attorneys said Scott’s conviction brought relief to the victim and his family, with Oulahan telling AP that Morales Reyes “just wants to work and be with his family again,” and that going through the process involved “all these different levels that feel like victimization.”