Las Vegas man gets 46 months for threatening U.S. senator
May 14 (UPI) -- A Las Vegas man has been sentenced to more than three years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to threatening to kill a U.S. senator from Nevada and the family members of two other U.S. senators.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey sentenced John Anthony Miller on Tuesday to a 46-month prison term to be followed by three years of supervised release.
"Threats against these U.S. senators and their families were vile, dehumanizing and shameful," Sue Bai, head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said in a statement.
"Today's sentence reflects the department's firm resolve to holding accountable those who seek to intimidate and harm our public officials. Such threats of violence have no place in our country."
Miller had pleaded guilty to one count of threatening a federal official and two counts of influencing, impeding or retaliating against a federal official by threatening a family member.
According to court documents, Miller made several calls to an unidentified senator between Oct. 11-19, 2023, leaving the politician obscene and expletive-riddled threatening messages.
In one of the messages, excerpts of which were reproduced in court documents, Miller told the senator that "we're gonna finish what Hitler started" and "we're gonna exterminate you."
A message Miller left at the senator's office suggested that he believed the senator was Jewish, and his threats were in connection to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which was instigated on Oct. 7 of that year when the militant group attacked the Middle Eastern country.
Miller also appeared at a Las Vegas courthouse intending to speak with the senator, and when he was denied entry, he yelled profanities.
At the time of the incident, a spokesperson for Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., confirmed in a statement that she was the target of the abuse.
Federal prosecutors also said that on Oct. 24 and 25 of that year, he threatened to assault and murder an immediate family member of two other U.S. senators. It was not clear who the other two senators were.
Miller was arrested on Oct. 26, 2023.
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