The representative for a U.S. attorney shot back at Rep. Matt Gaetz after he suggested that prosecutors declined to bring charges against a man who levied threats against him because of his ideology.
Gaetz, a Republican congressman from Florida, revealed Tuesday on Fox News that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California declined to pursue a case. Noting how people who threatened some of his Democratic colleagues get arrested, Gaetz told host Tucker Carlson, “I hope there’s not a double standard” against conservatives.
Abraham Simmons, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said the viewpoint of a public official is never taken into consideration when assessing threat cases.
“This Office prosecutes threat cases against public officials when law enforcement has determined there is a credible possibility that the threat could be carried out and the case otherwise meets our standards for prosecution. In assessing such threat cases, this Office does not take into consideration the politics of the public official who has been threatened,” Simmons said in a statement. “This Office prosecutes threat cases without discrimination on the basis of the public official’s viewpoint or any other impermissible basis.”
Carlson, who said the FBI had identified a suspect, played some voicemail audio from Gaetz’s office of a male’s voice making threats against the GOP congressman.
“Gaetz, you pathetic piece of s—. Do you know that I could blow your f—ing head clean off your shoulders from over a mile away. Watch your back, b—-. You pathetic little piece of s—. You got your head so far up Trump’s ass, I could still take it off your shoulders. F— you Gaetz. I’m coming after you, b—-,” the message said.
Gaetz said he has received other threats, including some against his family, after a woman threw a milkshake at him last month.
The congressman later tweeted to criticize the U.S. attorney’s “incorrect read of the law.”
Under the US atty’s incorrect read of the law, every death threat 2 every federal official is legal – no matter the words used. Just so long as the FBI doesn’t think you *really* mean it.
This jerk called my office three times. He threatened to come after my family.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) July 18, 2019
Legal elements:
1. Threat to murder ✅
2. A federal official ✅
3. With intent to intimidate ✅
4. Linked to official duties ✅What ? Am ? I ? missing ?
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) July 18, 2019
UPDATE:
Gaetz complained to the Washington Examiner that his office had not been reached for comment about the U.S. attorney’s statement, which was first published by Fox News, in response to his Fox News interview on Tuesday.
When asked via Twitter messenger if he would like to expound upon what he said in Tuesday’s interview, Gaetz responded, “That’s such bulls–t.”
“My tweets reflect my reaction to the US [Attorney]’s statement. Since you didn’t bother to reach out,” he added when asked again. “Even when left wing sites smear me, they at least seek my comment on the smears.”
He also said Fox News “sought my perspective,” even though their write-up made no mention of a follow-up effort to seek comment.
