Republican challenger to Ilhan Omar has outstanding warrant for her arrest
Ms Stella is accused of stealing $2,300 worth of items from Target
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Your support makes all the difference.Danielle Stella, who hopes to challenge Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar for her congressional seat, has an outstanding warrant for her arrest.
Ms Stella, an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and an apparent adherent to the QAnon conspiracy theories, has been wanted for months for felony shoplifting in Hennepin County, Minnseota.
The charges against Ms Stella allege that she stole 279 items worth more than $2,300 from Target. She insists she didn’t break the law, but the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office told The Daily Beast that she did, in fact, have an active felony theft warrant.
“I am not guilty of these crimes. In this country I am innocent until proven guilty and that is the law,” Ms Stella told The Guardian at the time of her arrest.
Ms Stella missed multiple court hearings concerning her alleged felony, resulting in a judge issuing the warrant for her arrest.
This is hardly the first controversy stirred by the candidate. Beyond her apparent belief in the QAnon conspiracy theories, she was also banned from Twitter in November for suggesting Ms Omar was working for the Iranian government and should be hanged for treason.
“If it is proven @IlhanMN passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for #treason and hanged,” she tweeted.
Ms Stella is one of five Republicans hoping to challenge Ms Omar for her seat. One of Ms Stella’s primary challengers, entrepreneur Lacy Johnson, suggested Ms Stella’s outstanding criminal issues are a poor reflection on the Republican party.
“Candidates are reflections of the party in a way, and it’s not a good reflection of the party in a sense,” he said.
In a statement she made following her arrest, Ms Stella said if she was guilty of a crime, she wouldn’t have run for office.
“If I was guilty of these 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 said.
She has also been arrested for stealing a bottle of tick spray for cats.
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