Man who allegedly claimed he had explosives outside Trump rally charged

A man was charged Monday after claiming he had explosives in his car when he drove through a security checkpoint last week during former President Trump’s rally in Michigan.

The man, Steven William Nauta, pleaded not guilty to the four counts against him Monday, CNN reported.

Prosecutors alleged in the complaint, obtained by CNN, that Nauta made a false threat of terrorism, possessed bombs with unlawful intent, failed to stop for police who were in marked vehicles and knowingly obstructed a police officer by disobeying commands.

The filing also alleges Nauta approached a traffic point at the rally in Walker, Mich., and was denied entrance. He then “held up a bottle to police and stated that it was ‘C4’ explosive” and called it “the real deal,” according to the complaint.

Nauta also confessed to speeding past a traffic point and disobeying the officer’s commands, the prosecutors noted. When he stopped, he “removed bags of fertilizer from his vehicle and threw them on the ground to make it appear that they were explosives,” they wrote.

The complaint also claimed the man said he “intended to make officers, and others, believe that he had explosives.”

The incident comes just weeks after former President Trump faced a second assassination threat at his golf club in Florida. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, also pleaded not guilty to five federal charges Monday.

Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in July,

It also follows a threat on Trump’s life in July, when a bullet grazed his ear during a campaign event in Pennsylvania. The would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed during the incident — after he opened fire on the crowd, leaving one dead and at least two others injured.