A man who had an assault rifle was accused of threatening Nancy Pelosi, the mayor, after traveling to Washington for the pro-Trump rally on Wednesday and sending a text message saying he would put “a bullet in his head. on live TV, ”said federal officials.
Federal agents said the man, Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr., was staying at a Holiday Inn in Washington and had weapons in his trailer, including a Glock pistol, a pistol, a Tavor X95 assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Mr. Meredith was accused of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, possession of an unregistered firearm and illegal possession of ammunition, according to court records. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
The Justice Department said on Friday that he was one of 13 people charged in federal court after a violent pro-Trump crowd invaded the Capitol on Wednesday and interrupted Congress while certifying the results of the presidential election.
The accused included conspiracy theorists, Proud Boys, elected officials and ordinary Americans.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Meredith erected a billboard in 2018 in Acworth, Georgia, which said “#QANON” along with the name of her company, Car Nutz Car Wash.
The QAnon conspiracy theory, which the FBI has labeled as a potential threat of domestic terrorism, accuses Democrats and some Republicans of being indebted to a conspiracy of bureaucrats, pedophiles and Satanists. Many followers believe that President Trump is secretly fighting a criminal gang of sex traffickers.
Meredith told The Journal-Constitution in 2018 that she had put up the QAnon billboard because she was “a patriot among the millions who love this country”.
Meredith, whose current hometown was unavailable, told federal agents that she was traveling from Colorado and was too late for Wednesday’s rally in Washington.
“I’m trying, but I’m currently stuck in Cambridge, OH, with the trailer lights being fixed,” he wrote in one of several text messages to friends, according to the FBI
In another text message, accompanied by a purple devil emoji, he said he had “a ton of 5.56 armor-piercing ammunition.” In other text messages, he referred to Ms. Pelosi with misogynistic slanders and threatened to run over her, the FBI said.
“I predict that in 12 days, many in our country will die,” wrote Meredith, according to the FBI
Seamus Hughes contributed reports.