Death threats to Speaker Pelosi leads to 28-month (below guideline, above plea deal) federal sentence

This Politico article reports on a notable federal sentencing today under this full headline: "QAnon follower gets 28-month sentence for death threats to Pelosi: Judge says continuing election-fraud rhetoric from Republican politicians makes defendant an ongoing threat."  Here are some of the details:

A QAnon follower from Georgia who brought an arsenal of weapons to Washington just after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol was sentenced Tuesday to 28 months in prison for making crude threats to kill Speaker Nancy Pelosi and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Cleveland Meredith Jr., 53, missed then-President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally due to trouble with his truck, but was arrested the following day at a hotel near the Capitol after family members alerted the FBI to threatening text messages he’d sent. In a trailer outside the hotel, police found a pistol, an assault rifle and about 2,500 rounds of ammunition, as well as a telescoping gun-sight....

With credit for the more than 11 months he has already served at a D.C. jail facility since his arrest plus good behavior credit, Meredith is likely to spend roughly another 14 months in federal prison before being released....

During a sentencing hearing that spanned more than three hours, Jackson read aloud the series of texts Meredith sent during a drive from Colorado to D.C. and after he arrived in Washington. “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi [expletive]’s speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV,” Meredith wrote in a message to his uncle on Jan. 7.  “I may wander over to the Mayor’s office and put a 5.56 in her skull,” Meredith added in an earlier message....

In her statement, Jackson railed against an increase in extreme political language, and she noted that many political leaders continue to make false claims about fraud in the 2020 election. “The heated inflammatory rhetoric that brought the defendant to the district has not subsided,” the judge said. “The lie that the election was stolen and illegitimate is still being perpetrated. Indeed, it’s being amplified not only on social media, but on mainstream news outlets and…it’s become heresy for a member of the president’s—the former president’s party to say otherwise.”

During a brief, emotional statement to the court, Meredith insisted that the threats he issued and his talk of “war” in the Capitol were just overheated rhetoric. “I had no intention. It was political hyperbole that was too hyper,” Meredith said. “I was out of control that day.”...

Meredith pleaded guilty in September to a felony threat charge that carries a maximum of five years in prison. The plea deal contemplated a sentence of between six months and two years. However, Jackson found that the non-binding sentencing guidelines actually called for a stiffer sentence of between 37 months and 46 months because the threat to Pelosi targeted a government official.

“The fact that the government didn’t point to this before is odd,” said the judge, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. “It’s hard to suggest that these threats weren’t about or motivated by the victim’s performance of their official duties…The defendant was not incensed at Nancy Pelosi because she was a next-door neighbor who parked in his parking spot or a former romantic or business partner.”

Kiyonaga complained bitterly about the increase in the recommended sentencing range and suggested that the change will discourage other defendants from agreeing to plea deals. “I painstakingly negotiated a plea agreement with the government,” he said. “I think the government has gotten a windfall that it should not take advantage of. I think that will reverberate.”

The judge ultimately sentenced Meredith below the guidelines range, citing in part the harsh pandemic-related conditions at the D.C. Jail, where he is housed with others awaiting trial on charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.