A Billings, Montana, man on Wednesday was convicted of threatening former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the government’s handling of a Chinese spy balloon that floated above the continental United States last year.
According to a report from the Associated Press (AP), a 12-person jury found 45-year-old Richard Rogers guilty of delivering threats to a McCarthy staffer on February 3, 2023, the day after Pentagon officials announced they were tracking the spy balloon, which was spotted above Montana as it traveled across the country.
The balloon was eventually shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. Defense officials had said at the time that they decided not to shoot the balloon down as it was floating above land over fears that it could hurt people on the ground.
The threats by Rogers were delivered in a series of more than 100 phone calls to the office of McCarthy, former U.S. Republican representative from California, in the span of 75 minutes, according to prosecutors.
Rogers was also convicted on two counts of making harassing telephone calls in the communications with McCarthy’s office and during the 150 calls he made to an FBI tips line in 2021 and 2022. AP reported that the defendant often used vulgar and obscene language in the calls.
Rogers testified during the three-day trial that his calls directed to the FBI and McCarthy, who resigned from office last year after being ousted from his speaker’s seat, were a form of “civil disobedience.” Prosecutors argued in court that Rogers’ threats on McCarthy’s life, as well as his abusive and sexist language toward the lawmaker’s staff and FBI call operators, went beyond speech protected under the First Amendment.
“You can’t talk to people that way. It’s common sense,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Godfrey said in trial, as reported by AP. “He’s calling not out of political protest; he’s calling because he gets enjoyment out of it.”
Rogers will face sentencing on January 31, where he could be slapped with six years in prison and a $250,000 fine for threatening a member of Congress. He also faces a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine on his two harassment counts.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana via email for additional comment Wednesday.
Political violence against elected officials has been on the rise in the U.S. in recent years. The Department of Justice last month said that it was increasing its safety measures for the 2024 election in light of the heightened danger, namely the two assassination attempts on Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump in recent months.
“The Department has no tolerance for violence and illegal threats of violence against public officials, government offices, and election infrastructure,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte said in a letter last month. “These crimes are attacks on our democracy.”
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