BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A North Dakota man has been charged with threatening to kill President Barack Obama.
At a court hearing Tuesday, 22-year-old Eric Allen Hirchert told U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Miller that he was unemployed and that he had no money.
Miller appointed Orell Schmitz of Bismarck as Hirchert's attorney. Schmitz did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.
Authorities said Hirchert was arrested Friday on charges that he assaulted his mother at her Washburn home, allegedly after she told him to stop making the threats.
McLean County prosecutor Ladd Erickson said Hirchert's mother told authorities that her son had been threatening to kill Obama for about two weeks. She said he struck her in the face after she told him to stop.
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Erickson said he notified federal authorities and they charged Hirchert on Monday with threatening to kill the president.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandi Sasse Russell said Hirchert is a nursing student but said it's not clear where.
