A man from New Hampshire faces up to 10 years in prison after threatening to kill a United States senator because he was angry that the senator was “blocking military promotions,” according to federal court documents.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of New Hampshire announced on Friday that Brian Landry, 66, of Franklin, N.H., had been charged with threatening to assault, kidnap or murder a United States official.
Mr. Landry called a senator’s district field office on May 17 and left a threatening voice mail message, according to court documents. The senator who was threatened by Mr. Landry was not named in court documents, which only detailed that the senator has been in office since January 2021.
“Hey stupid, I’m a veteran sniper,” Mr. Landy said in the voice mail. “Unless you change your ways, I got my scope pointed in your direction and I’m coming to get you. You’re a dead man walking,” he said, adding some expletives.
Investigators tracked down Mr. Landry based on the telephone number associated with the message, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. When Mr. Landry was interviewed by investigators, he admitted that he had called the senator’s office, though initially he said that he did not remember what he had said in the message, according to court documents.
During the interview, Mr. Landry told investigators that he was “extremely angry with certain politicians over their handling of important entitlement programs for veterans,” according to the criminal complaint.
Mr. Landry later told investigators that he had called the senator’s office because he had heard that the senator was “blocking military promotions,” the criminal complaint said.
Mr. Landry is set to appear in the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire on July 12, according to court documents. If convicted, Mr. Landry could face penalties including up to 10 years in prison, along with three years of supervised release, and a fine of as much as $250,000.
A lawyer for Mr. Landry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
Elected officials, politicians and their families have faced a rise in threats over the past few years as violent political speech has become more prevalent. Such threats made in voice mail messages and via social media have sometimes become more concrete, as was the case last June, when a man, who was armed with a pistol, a knife and other weapons, said that he traveled to the home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh intending to kill the Supreme Court justice. In October, a man broke into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco and struck her husband with a hammer, fracturing his skull.
While federal prosecutors did not identify the targeted senator, the promotions of senior military commanders were held in the Senate as they became enmeshed with the debate over abortion policy after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court.
