Congressional candidate trying to oust Ilhan Omar charged with felony theft

A Minnesota congressional candidate aiming to oust Ilhan Omar from office was charged with a felony for allegedly shoplifting from a Target and a grocery store in the Minneapolis suburbs.

Danielle Stella, a 31-year-old supporter of President Donald Trump, was arrested twice this year, according to a report from The Guardian.

On January 8 Stella allegedly stole 279 items worth $2,327.97 from a Target in the town of Edina. She reportedly scanned a few low-cost items and walked out with the rest, and was arrested after security personnel notified police.

Stella said she did not remember the incident due to post-traumatic stress disorder. She has said she was a victim of a violent assault in 2008, and was in the past charged with stealing under a previous surname, the report said. She faces up to five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.

She denied the charges.

“If I was guilty of crimes, I would never run for public office, putting myself in the public eye under a microscope to be attacked by all political sides,” she told the newspaper via text message.

https://twitter.com/2020MNCongress/status/1153056802264817664

In a series of tweets, she upbraided The Guardian reporter who broke the story.

“What you wrote was garbage, unethical, outright lies. You repeatedly called, texted with threats about posting a smear article, which you then proceeded to do,” she said.

The shoplifting incidents were not her only legal woes, the report said.

A warrant for alleged contempt of court was put out for her arrest on April 4 after she was a no-show at a court hearing.

She was arrested again on April 28 for allegedly stealing a bottle of anti-tick spray for cats.

In 2009, she pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, the report said.

Stella was featured on the far-right website InfoWars in an interview broadcast Wednesday titled “Meet the woman who’s running against Ilhan Omar.” In the interview she called Omar a “witch” and a fraud. She said Minneapolis was the “crime capital” of America and gave false statistics about a rise in crime rates in the city.

She officially registered on June 19 as a candidate for Minnesota’s fifth congressional district, currently represented by Omar. Her Twitter handle is @2020MNCongress, and her bio reads “Republican Candidate against Ilhan Omar.” She is one of five candidates currently registered in the district.

One tweet she posted on Thursday appeared to accuse Omar of incest; another said the lawmaker “was trying to cause a civil war by race baiting this Country.”

She has used hashtags on Twitter associated with the widely debunked and baseless QAnon conspiracy theory. She posted a picture of herself on July 22 wearing a necklace with the letter Q in a possible reference to the theory.

On June 4 she posted her plans to attend an event billed as a “rally against anti-Semitism and the persecution of Christians and other minorities.” She later posted that the event had been postponed.