Cleveland Meredith Jr., a 53-year old man who previously threatened to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head, pleaded guilty to one count interstate communication of threats, The Hill reports.
According to the media outlet, a text message sent by Meredith to a relative on 7 January read “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi C---’s speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV”, followed by a “purple devil emoji”.
As part of his plea deal, the man reportedly admitted to sending the message in question, but claimed it was only “political hyperbole”.
As the media outlet points out, Meredith planned to travel from Colorado to Washington DC on 6 January to participate in the rallies in support of Donald Trump and his baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, but arrived too late.
Meredith reportedly had with him a Tavor X95 rifle, a Glock 9mm handgun and roughly 2,500 rounds of ammunition.
While Meredith was initially charged with interstate communication of threats, possession of unregistered firearms, possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device, the prosecution agreed to drop the weapon-related charges if he pleaded guilty to the interstate communication of threats charge.
Meredith reportedly remains in custody as he awaits sentencing, slated for 14 December, and is currently facing up to 24 months in prison.