Trump supporter Cleveland Grover Meredith, Jr., who who threatened to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) one day after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced to more than two years in prison, The hill reported Tuesday.
The 53-year-old MAGA fanatic was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of interstate communication of threats in September. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completing the prison sentence, according to the report.
Prosecutors allege in court documents that Meredith, while in a hotel in Washington, D.C., texted one of his relatives on Jan. 7 that he was “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi … speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV,” followed by a purple devil emoji.
In a separate text message to the same family member on Jan. 7, Meredith said “I’m gonna run … Pelosi over while she chews on her gums,” according to court documents.
But the family member who received the text message threatening Pelosi contacted the man’s mother, who then reached out to the FBI.
According to court documents,Meredith admitted to sending the text, but argued that his note was “political hyperbole.”
Federal agents arrested him at a hotel roughly one mile from the Capitol building on Jan. 7. After receiving consent, the agents searched Merediths’s phone, truck and trailer, which was at the hotel, and found a 9mm semi-automatic firearm, an assault-style rifle with a telescopic sight, multiple large-capacity ammunition feeding devices and roughly 2,500 rounds of ammunition in the trailer.
Meredith told investigators he initially intended to drive from Colorado to D.C. on Jan. 6 to participate in the rallies supporting then-President Trump and his claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, but car troubles delayed his trip, according to court documents.
