The US Department of Justice announced on Friday that a federal grand jury has indicted a 33-year-old man on charges of threatening to kill US Vice President J.D. Vance during a visit to Ohio last January.
The ministry explained in a statement that the accused, named Shannon Mathry, who is from Toledo, Ohio, had made threats to kill and harm Vance. According to the indictment, he was quoted as saying, “I will find out where the Vice President will be, and I will use my M14 automatic rifle to kill him.”
The US Secret Service arrested Mathri on Friday, while no one was able to contact his representative to obtain an immediate comment.
In a related context, experts expressed increasing concern about the escalation of political violence and the threats associated with it in the United States, in light of the sharp division that the country has witnessed in recent years.
The Department of Justice stated that during the investigation into the threats made against the Vice President, federal agents found in Mathri’s possession a number of files containing material related to child sexual abuse.
The ministry also explained that “Mathry” appeared for the first time before the US Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Ohio on Friday, and he remains in custody awaiting his hearing scheduled for February 11.
According to the Ministry of Justice, if convicted of threatening the life of the Vice President, Mathari faces a maximum penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Additionally, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 if convicted of possession of child pornography.
