US to seek death penalty for suspect in killing of Israeli embassy staff members

Prosecutors have said he travelled from Chicago to Washington DC with a handgun after researching an upcoming networking event for young Jewish professionals at the museum.Lischinsky and Milgrim were leaving when the suspect fired 20 shots, killing them both, prosecutors allege. They were in a relationship and Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring, planning to propose to Milgrim on an upcoming trip to Israel, Israel's ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, previously said. After the shooting, Rodriguez then allegedly entered the museum, displayed a red keffiyeh, and said: "I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza." Prosecutors also say Rodriguez wrote a document called "explication" in which he expressed his support for Palestine and claimed Israel was trying to exterminate Palestinians."In addition to allegedly murdering two innocent people and terrorizing the survivors of his attack at the Capital Jewish Museum, Rodriguez wrote and published a manifesto attempting to morally justify his actions and inspire others to commit political violence," Darren Cox, FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office, said in a February press release. During his first term, Trump brought back federal executions, which had not been carried out for more than a decade, and changed justice policies to make it easier to perform the execution that the Biden administration then rescinded. Biden then imposed a moratorium on federal executions.On the first day he returned to the White House, Trump directed the justice department to "prioritize seeking death sentences in appropriate cases, promptly carrying out those sentences, and strengthening the death penalty", according to the department.Since then, his administration has reestablished executions by lethal injection and expanded the types of execution the federal government can use, such as firing squad, while also expediting death penalty cases, according to the justice department.