Sister of US Supreme Court justice receives pipe bomb threat at Charleston residence

The sister of a U.S. Supreme Court justice was the target of a political bomb threat that briefly closed roads one morning this week in a West Ashley neighborhood, according to local police and FBI. No pipe bomb was found.

Charleston police on March 10 responded to a threat sent to Amanda Coney Williams, sister of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, on Nuffield Road in the Sandhurst neighborhood.

The threat was made via email that was originally sent at 11:51 p.m. March 8. Her husband, David Williams, did not report the threat until the morning of March 10.

The email read: 

“Using a 1×8-inch threaded galvanized pipe, end caps, a kitchen timer, some wires, metal clips and homemade black powder, I’ve constructed a pipe bomb which I recently placed in Amy Coney Barrett’s sister’s mailbox at her home at (redacted), Charleston, SC (redacted). The device’s detonation will be triggered as soon as the mailbox is next opened. Free Palestine!”

Police responded and blocked off Edinburgh Road. Police also blocked Nuffield at Shrewsbury and Manchester roads off Orange Grove Road. They determined the threat was a false alarm.

Kevin Wheeler, public affairs officer for the FBI’s Columbia field office, said agents assisted city police. Justice Barrett listed her sister as a potential conflict of interest should one of Williams’s cases come before the Supreme Court, according to the justice’s U.S. Senate screening questionnaire.

David Williams told police that an unknown person, possibly related to the sender of the email, had delivered pizzas to every household related to Justice Barrett on March 8.

Communications staff at the U.S. Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the threat made to a sitting justice’s sibling. 

Williams is a civil attorney at Parker Poe, a regional law firm. She is one of about 275 attorneys in eight offices across the Southeastern U.S., representing local governments and large companies.