John Schneider Under Secret Service Investigation After Calling for ‘Public Hanging’ of Biden

Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider, who recently appeared as Donut on the latest season of The Masker Singer, is reportedly under secret service investigation after making a death threat against President Joe Biden on social media.

In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), Schneider wrote, “Mr. President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung. Your son too. Your response is..? Sincerely, John Schneider.”

The statement was written in response to a tweet from President Biden’s account, which said that former President Donald Trump “poses many threats to our country.”

According to Deadline, the Secret Service has opened a probe into Schneider’s statements. At the same time, the actor himself has denied that he called for violence against the President and his son, Hunter Biden.

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“Seriously, folks? This is my final comment on this. I neither said nor implied any such thing,” Schneider said in a statement to TMZ. “Despite headlines claiming otherwise, in my post, I absolutely did not call for an act of violence or threaten a U.S. president as many other celebrities have done in the past. I suggest you re-read my actual post and pay attention to the words before believing this nonsense.”

He continued, “It’s my position, which I am entitled to have, that some of our nations leaders in Washington have lost their way, and corruption runs rampant, both on our nation’s borders and abroad. Transparency and accountability must happen in order for our constitutional republic to survive. There is no threat implied or otherwise in that statement.”

The Secret Service also released a statement, noting, “The Secret Service is aware of the comments made by Mr. Schneider, and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence.”

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It continued, “We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees.”

Schneider’s tweet came just hours after he finished as runner-up on The Masked Singer‘s Season 10 finale on Wednesday, December 20. The actor previously spoke about how the reality competition series helped him cope with the death of his wife, Alicia Allain, who died from breast cancer earlier this year.

“What an amazing opportunity to be able to honor Alicia, to be able to honor people who are grieving, maybe educate people who are grieving a little bit, in front of millions of people. I’m a pretty strong guy but I’m also a very emotional guy,” he told People.