US AG says she’ll seek death penalty for suspect in killing of Israeli embassy staffers

Pam Bondi tells Florida pro-Israel conference that Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were ‘murdered because they were Jewish’

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said her office would seek the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez, who is accused of murdering Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim in Washington in May, the Miami Herald, reported Friday.

Bondi made the announcement in a speech at the Israeli American Council (IAC) National Summit in Florida on Friday.

“Sarah and Yaron were shot, murdered because they were Jewish,” Bondi said, according to the Herald. “It was horrible. Horrible. We will not tolerate that in our country any longer."

Citing hate crimes such as the arson at a historic Mississippi synagogue this month, Bondi said antisemitism has gone “unchecked” in the US, adding that the Department of Justice under US President Donald Trump “is dedicated to reversing this unacceptable trend,” the Herald reported.

As examples of the White House’s commitment to fighting antisemitism, Bondi touted Trump’s involvement in securing a Gaza truce-hostage deal and the DOJ’s million-dollar settlements against public universities over anti-Israel protests amid the war in Gaza that was sparked by the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

“Too many Jewish Americans have been forced to live in fear,” said Bondi, blaming the “inaction” of institutions and leaders who choose to “look the other way,” the Miami Herald reported.

Bondi reportedly ended her speech by recounting having personally helped get a student kicked out of Florida Sate University who had allegedly verbally assaulted a fellow student who wore an IDF shirt to campus.

“It’s not a crime of great violence, but in my opinion, it’s a crime of great significance,” said Bondi.

Rodriguez, 31, is accused of fatally shooting Lischinsky, 30, and Milgrim, 26, on May 21 as they were leaving an American Jewish Committee event for young professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum. Lischinsky and Milgrim were set to get engaged to be married.

The US Justice Department announced in August that the charges against Rodriguez — which include murder of a foreign official, first-degree murder and hate crime resulting in death — carry a maximum sentence of life in jail or the death penalty.

The department said at the time that the US attorney general would decide at a later date whether to seek the death penalty.

Source: timesofisrael.com, Staff, January 17, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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