Prosecutors unseal charges against Michigan man for threatening FBI director and California congressman

Prosecutors unsealed a legal grievance towards a Michigan man on Tuesday accused of threatening to kill a California congressman and FBI Director Christopher Wray, including to the spate of current alleged legal threats towards lawmakers.

Based on courtroom paperwork, Neil Matthew Walter made a number of threatening statements on-line and in a voice message to lawmakers and regulation enforcement officers. He’s charged with transmitting an interstate menace to injure somebody.

It’s not clear from courtroom paperwork whether or not Walter has been arrested, and a lawyer for Walter will not be listed on the general public docket.

On November 4, america Capitol Police had been made conscious of threatening voicemail messages allegedly left by Walter on Democratic Rep. John Garamendi’s DC workplace voicemail, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.

“John. Hey John. You’re gonna die John. You’re gonna die,” Walter allegedly stated within the recording.

In feedback posted on a stay stream of FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony earlier than Congress final week, Walter allegedly wrote, “I’ll kill you director Wray you’ll die I’ll kill you in self-defense,” in accordance with the doc.

“I thank Capitol Police and FBI for shortly addressing this menace,” Garamendi stated in a press release on Tuesday.

In current months, a number of members of Congress and their households have obtained threats and a few have been bodily attacked, together with the brutal assault of Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, final month.

The FBI and Division of Homeland Safety have additionally warned about threats towards regulation enforcement, and this summer season a person in Cincinnati was killed after allegedly making an attempt to interrupt into an FBI discipline workplace with what federal regulation enforcement believed was a nail gun and AR-15.

An area police officer carried out a wellness examine on Walter after regulation enforcement turned conscious of the threats, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. In the course of the encounter, Walter allegedly refused to place down a handgun, stated he would “defend himself towards the U.S. authorities,” and went on a chronic rant about “children being raped, a lawsuit with Putin, and the way he’s calling everybody on a regular basis, however nobody is doing something concerning the children.”

Fb posts on Walter’s accounts cited within the affidavit contained related rants about hazard to youngsters, together with beliefs {that a} youngster slave ring was being held within the US Capitol.

Each of Walter’s dad and mom instructed regulation enforcement that he has struggled together with his psychological well being over the previous few years, and has been out and in of psychological well being establishments, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.