Within a day of Ramón Morales-Reyes' arrest , investigators had concluded he almost certainly was not the person responsible for writing a letter threatening to shoot President Donald Trump.
But that did nothing to prevent Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from touting his arrest, releasing his photo and sharing a copy of the handwritten letter on social media six days later.
The arrest of Morales-Reyes, a 54-year-old Mexican immigrant living in Milwaukee, sparked intense scrutiny from the start.
He was arrested after dropping off his daughter at school, once considered a sensitive location where immigration arrests should be avoided under earlier administrations. The Trump administration reversed that guidance in January.
After Noem issued the news release,