A member of the American group Proud Boys, Eduard Florea, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for threatening Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and possessing ammunition after a prior felony.
The 41-year-old pleaded guilty to the charges in August.
The DOJ said the defendant was posting on social media days before the assault on the Capitol, saying "tomorrow may be the day war kicks off" and threatening the senator: "Warnock is going to have a hard time casting votes for communist policies when he’s swinging with the f***ing fish" and "Dead men can’t pass sh*t laws..."
After the storming of the Capitol began on 6 January, Florea wrote that he intended to travel to Washington, DC as part of an armed group to engage in additional violence, the DOJ added.
"With today’s sentence, the defendant faces serious consequences for threatening the life of United States Senator Raphael Warnock as part of his effort to foment violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in connection with attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement on Thursday.
In all, more than 700 people have been charged with various offences related to the violent storming of the US Capitol when mobs of pro-Trump supporters attempted to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential elections results.