An Illinois real estate agent who lashed out at comedian Patton Oswalt may be out of a job after making a crack about Oswalt's late wife.



Oswalt took to Twitter on Monday night to defend acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired after refusing to defend President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration. Trump: "You leave this White House now!" Sally Yates rides bus to city. Becomes a taxi dancer. Leads dance revolt against pimp. Triumphs.

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 31, 2017 That comment reportedly drew fire from a Peoria-based realtor named Tony Brust. In a since-deleted post, Brust allegedly responded, "Oh (bleep), the little troll has an opinion again,'" according to the Kansas City Star.

As others jumped in to defend the comedian, Brust reportedly took a swipe at Oswalt's late wife, joking that he was a psychic "channeling" her opinion. Oswalt's wife, crime writer Michelle McNamara, died unexpectedly in April 2016. Her death left Oswalt a single father to the couple's 7-year-old daughter. The comedian has been candid about his struggle with grief since McNamara's death. In October, he recounted finding her unresponsive in their bed, telling the New York Times, "The worst is when I told my daughter the next day." Oswalt said comedy has been therapeutic for him since his loss.

"I'll never be at 100 percent again, but that won't stop me from living this," Oswalt told the paper. He also wrote at length about his grief on social media. Brust's jab prompted outrage from Oswalt, who, in a series of now-deleted tweets, began mocking some of Brust's listings with comments like, "Totally Not a Murder House" and "Personally crop dusted by Tony Brust."

By Tuesday morning, many of the tweets had been deleted, but Oswalt explained why he felt the need to lash out, sharing a screenshot of Brust's comment.

Would've happily ignored Tony Brust if he hadn't sent THIS Tweet. But he did and it caught me at a dark moment: pic.twitter.com/yflAMuSAqo

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 31, 2017 Brust's Twitter account appeared to have been deleted Tuesday morning, and his professional website was "unavailable."



According to his LinkedIn page, Brust was a realtor for Jim Maloof/Realtor in Peoria, but the company on Tuesday said he no longer works there. An employee who answered the phone at the business Tuesday afternoon repeated that Brust is "no longer with us" but hung up when asked if he was let go due to the Twitter dustup. Brust also was not on a list of agents on the real estate firm's website.