A Republican supporter from Maryland may be jailed for up to five years after he admitted on Tuesday to leaving a grim note in October, threatening the assasination of Democrat tandem Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on national television during the 2020 presidential campaign.
The suspect James Dale Reed, 42, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of making threats against a major candidate for president or vice president after he left a death threat on the doorstep of a Biden-Harris supporter in October 2020, according to Fox News.
The man left the letter at the home of a Democrat supporter who had several campaign materials in their yard supporting the Biden-Harris tandem in the early morning hours of Oct. 4, 2020, about a month before last year's election, according to the federal complaint filed against Reed on Oct. 21, 2020. He was spotted on a doorbell camera leaving the note.
“If you are a Biden/Harris supporter you will be targeted,” the letter read. “We have a list of homes and addresses by your election signs. We are the ones with those scary guns. We are the ones your children have nightmares about.”
The letter was threatening the Democrat duo with physical harm and execution, detailing how the aggressor would perform the senseless act of violence.
"I will personally put my Glock 17 to [Harris'] head and make [damn] sure her brains go out the back of her skull," the letter continued. "When we capture Grandpa Biden we will all surely beat him to the point of death."
Law enforcement moved to interview the man in question at his home about a week later on Oct. 15, 2020, after obtaining an Extreme Risk Protective Order to confiscate Reed’s firearms based on voter intimidation and threats of mass violence, WJZ reported.
A search warrant executed on his home allowed police to retrieve a cache of U.S. Army paraphernalia including several pairs of military-issue uniforms, helmets, plate carriers, and backpacks.
Law enforcement then seized a large stash of weapons including a Smith & Wesson 9VE handgun, a JC Higgins 20-12 Gauge rifle, a .223 caliber Bushmaster XM15-E25, a Hi-Point 995 handgun, and about eight ammunition cans with 5.56 and 9mm ammunition and AR-15 carbine magazines.
Two grenades without blast caps were also found from a room that reportedly "resembled a U.S. military outpost bunker."
Reed eventually confessed to making the threats after initially strenuously maintaining his innocence. He reportedly told police that he wrote the letter "because he was upset at the political situation."
As a part of his plea agreement, the man agreed to forfeit the firearms and ammunition.
Reed, who was convicted of voter intimidation in Frederick County Circuit Court, faces up to five years in prison for his recent crime when he is sentenced on July 27, 2021, at 4:00 p.m. by U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
The announcement of Reed's guilty plea comes at the back of fiery conversations about the For the People Act, a bill that imposes penalties for intimidation at the polls. However, the legislation does not have the support of Senate Republicans and is likely to be blocked, according to Politico.
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