California man who left threatening voicemails for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Department of Homeland Security. The Justice Department announced Wednesday that Alejandro Mayorkas was sentenced to 11 months in prison.
David Allen Carrier, 44, pleaded guilty on December 19, 2023 to two counts of intimidation of a federal officer after a grand jury indicted him on September 12, 2023.
Just 15 days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Carrier called then-Speaker Pelosi’s office and threatened to assault her in a voicemail message. A year and a half later, on June 30, 2022, Ms. Carrier called the DHS hotline and threatened to assault Mr. Mayorkas in her voicemail message.
In pleading guilty, Carrier acknowledged that he intended to impede Pelosi and Mayorkas’ ability to perform their official duties as members of Congress and Secretary of Homeland Security, respectively.
“Participating in public political dialogue is an important right of all citizens,” U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a Justice Department press release. “Nevertheless, threatening public officials is not protected by the First Amendment and undermines our ability to engage in peaceful and important public debate. We will not tolerate behavior that crosses the line of criminal intimidation.”
After completing his sentence, Mr. Carrier was ordered to serve three years of supervised release. The judge ordered Carrier to attend mental health and substance abuse treatment, among other things, during that time. He was ordered to have no contact with Pelosi and Mayorkas and to distance himself from them.
FBI Special Agent Robert Tripp warned that “violent threats targeting elected officials also threaten our democratic institutions.”
“Today’s ruling shows that anyone who sends politically motivated threats of violence to government officials will be investigated by the FBI and held accountable,” Tripp added.
The ruling came amid escalating political violence in the country. Pelosi and Mayorkas, in particular, have often been the focus of conservative anger in recent years.
In October 2022, Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was hospitalized after a man searching for the former House speaker broke into his home and attacked him with a hammer.
Mayorkas is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached since the 1870s, but DHS said the vote was proceeding “without a shred of evidence or legitimate constitutional basis.”
A spokeswoman for Pelosi declined to comment.
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