Pro-Trump candidate trying to oust Ilhan Omar was arrested for shoplifting 279 items, is a QAnon conspiracist
Danielle Stella, a pro-Trump Republican candidate who is aiming to oust Ilhan Omar from office, was charged for allegedly shoplifting from a Target and a grocery store in the Minneapolis suburbs, according to a report.
Stella, 31, was arrested twice this year, according to a report from The Guardian. She allegedly stole 279 items valued at $2,327 from a Target store in the town of Edina on January 8 and was arrested and charged after security personnel notified police. The report said she reportedly scanned a few low-cost items and walked out of the store with the rest.
According to a criminal complaint filed at the Hennepin County district court, Stella told police at the time that she only remembered “arriving at Target to purchase items but nothing else” due to a post-traumatic stress disorder. She also told authorities that she usually went to "Target with someone because of anxiety around people”.
Stella, who earlier this week described Minneapolis as “the crime capital of our country” in an interview, was reportedly arrested on April 28 for stealing a bottle of tick spray for cats.
When authorities ran a background check on her following the incident, they found that there she already had a warrant against her for alleged contempt of court on April 4 after she did not appear at a hearing.
Meanwhile, Stella has denied the accusations against her in a statement to the Guardian.
"I am not guilty of these crimes. In this country I am innocent until proven guilty and that is the law," Stella said. "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, however, didn't stop herself from attacking the journalist who wrote the article about her arrest.
In a series of tweets, Stella criticized the writer, Jon Swaine, and questioned his integrity.
According to the report, Stella also supports the QAnon conspiracy theory, which promotes the baseless idea that Trump is working against a powerful network of pedophiles that are among the highest ranks in society. She frequently uses the hashtag #WWG1WGA on Twitter - a reference to QAnon's motto: "Where we go one, we go all."
Ever since launching her campaign, Stella has vowed to crack down on the crime rate in her city, which she falsely claimed to have risen by 80 percent over the past year. Statistical records from Minneapolis police data shows that there has been a 10.7 percent increase in serious crime year-on-year, and the year 2018 saw a 16.5 percent decline in the rate.
She has also taken every opportunity to go after Omar on her Twitter page.
"I'm Danielle Stella," she wrote in a tweet. "I am a young Conservative Republican running for Minnesota Congressional District 5 in 2020, against @IlhanMN. I believe in standing up for everyone's voices and concerns to be heard. I will fight against the hatred, the division, media bias, information."
Stella also did an interview with far-right website InfoWars where she agreed with the host when he called Omar “a witch” and said, “Everything about her is a fraud.”