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An Alaska man who left a barrage of menacing voicemail messages threatened to kill the state’s two U.S. senators was sentenced Friday to 32 months in jail.
U.S. District Decide Ralph R. Beistline sentenced Jay Allen Johnson, 65, after the Delta Junction resident pleaded responsible earlier this yr to federal prices of threatening to kill or have an murderer homicide GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, the Justice Division mentioned.
Every cost carries as much as 10 years in jail, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the District of Alaska mentioned in January.
As a part of his plea settlement, prosecutors mentioned Johnson will probably be prohibited from contacting the senators and their households or workers for 3 years after he’s launched from jail. He additionally will forfeit seven firearms seized from his residence.
Along with his jail sentence, Johnson was fined $5,000 on Friday, the Justice Division mentioned.
NBC Information has reached out to Johnson’s lawyer for remark.
Johnson left 17 threatening voicemails for the senators over a five-month interval and mentioned the messages had been aimed toward retaliating in opposition to them “for performing their official duties,” prosecutors mentioned in courtroom paperwork.
In a single voicemail left with Murkowski’s workplace in Washington, D.C., Johnson made quite a few threats.
“I’ll discover out all the pieces, the place you’re at. I’ll discover out all of your properties and I’ll burn all the pieces you hope to have, and I’ll burn all the pieces you hope to personal,” he mentioned in a single message, in response to courtroom paperwork.
He additionally accused Murkowski of letting in “terrorists” and “assassins” and requested if the senator knew what a .50 caliber shell “does to a human head.” Later that month, Johnson left one other voicemail threatening to rent an murderer to kill Murkowski, prosecutors mentioned.
Johnson referred to his .50 caliber in a separate sequence of violent messages to Sullivan that started in April 2021 and continued till September, the Justice Division mentioned. In a single message, he threatened to get his “.50 caliber out,” and to return “with a vengeance,” in response to courtroom paperwork cited by prosecutors.
“The defendant’s conduct is just unacceptable in a democracy,” Assistant U.S. Legal professional Ryan Tansey wrote in a sentencing memo earlier this month. “Our system permits residents to resolve political and authorized conflicts by means of political and authorized means. As political violence and home extremism develop, violent intimidation of public officers should lead to severe legal penalties.”
Johnson’s lawyer, Jason Weiner, mentioned his consumer suffers from post-traumatic stress dysfunction and poor bodily well being, including that Johnson “knew he would by no means act on his threats.”
“Between the prescribed narcotics, ache, and self-medicating, Mr. Johnson was not himself,” Weiner wrote in a sentencing memo. He argued that the turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic and Johnson’s alcohol use additionally contributed to his erratic conduct.
Threats in opposition to members of Congress intensified final yr within the months following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Federal authorities Friday condemned threats like those in opposition to the Alaska senators.
“The erosion of civility in our political discourse won’t ever justify threats or acts of violence,” U.S. Legal professional for the District of Alaska John E. Kuhn, Jr. mentioned in an announcement. “Johnson’s actions have to be punished, and the Division of Justice will at all times work to make sure our elected officers can serve with out worry of hurt.”
NBC Information has reached out to Murkowski and Sullivan’s workplaces for remark.
Johnson’s sentencing got here the identical day a federal jury declined to convict 4 males accused of concocting a plan to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whom they blamed for public health-related restrictions she ordered early within the coronavirus pandemic.
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