Texas man sentenced for threatening calls to Rep. Maxine Waters
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Rep. Maxine Waters during a hearing in Washington, DC, on May 15. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A Texas man was sentenced Monday to nearly three years in federal prison for making a series of threatening phone calls to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), per the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
The big picture: Brian Michael Gaherty, 61, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner, who found that the Houston man targeted Waters in threats to assault and kill the Democrat because of her race.
- A hate-crime enhancement was applied to Gaherty's 33-month sentence.
- Gaherty, who pleaded guilty in January to one count of threatening a U.S. official, was also fined $10,000.
Details: Gaherty admitted in his plea agreement to threatening to assault and murder Waters on four separate occasions in August and November of 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
- "Gaherty made these threats with the intent to impede, intimidate, and interfere with Waters while she was engaged in the performance of her official duties," it said.
- "Specifically, Gaherty left four voicemails at Waters' district office in Los Angeles County, each of which contained a violent threat, profanity, and racist and misogynistic language."
What they're saying: "This growing effort to target people of color and women of color ... has given me nightmares. I am in fear of my life," Waters told the judge, per the Los Angeles Times.
- "I believe that we must all be accountable. Nobody is above the law."
- As U.S. marshals moved to lead Gaherty away, he the L.A. Times reports that told reporters h's "sorry" and has "no hatred in my heart."
Zoom out: Investigations into threats against members of Congress rose last year, prompting House Democrats to create a task force on member security following the sudden surge in Israel-related incidents.
- U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement that threats "to harm or kill elected officials are anathema to our nation's values and must not — and will not — be tolerated.
- "My office and the entire Department of Justice will continue to combat threats against public officials and other attempts to chill democracy."
Go deeper: DOJ warns of "new era" in targeting election officials as 20 charged over threats
