Florida man admits to threatening Pelosi, Ocortez

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Florida man admits to threatening Pelosi, Ocortez

A Florida man who threatened to behead House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pleaded guilty Friday to federal counts and faces years in prison.

In a plea agreement, Paul Vernon Hoeffer, 60, of Palm Beach Gardens, phoned in threats to the offices of the two high-profile Democratic lawmakers in 2019.

He admitted to calling in a racist threat to Kim Foxx, the top prosecutor for the Chicago area, that same year.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said on Friday that Hoeffer had pleaded guilty to three counts of interstate transmission of threats to kidnap or injure.

There are three counts that carry up to five years in prison. Hoeffer called Pelosi's office in March 2019 and told a staffer to tell the California Democrat to step down, or else he would rattle her head with bullets, according to court documents. He threatened to decapitate her and said to sleep with one eye open. Hoeffer left a racist message in which he threatened to kill Cook County State Attorney Foxx, and left a message threatening to kill Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. in November.

The plea agreement does not specify a motive. The plea agreement says that Hoeffer warned of all-out war and a civilian army in some of the calls.

The number of threats to members of Congress is on the rise. They went up last year to around 9,600, according to Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger.

He said there were more than 8,000 threats in 2020 and in 2017 the agency logged around 3,900 threats.

Not all of the concerning statements made in phone calls and emails and on social media or other forms rise to the level of crimes, but they are investigated, he said.