A California man who left threatening voicemails for Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas was sentenced to 11 months in prison, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.
David Allen Carrier, 44, pleaded guilty on Dec. 19, 2023, to two counts of making threats against a federal official after a grand jury indicted him on Sept. 12, 2023.
Just 15 days after the Jan. 6, 202,1 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Carrier called then-Speaker Pelosi’s office and threatened to assault her in a voicemail message. A year and a half later, on June 30, 2022, Carrier called the DHS hotline and threatened to assault Mayorkas in a voicemail message.
In pleading guilty, Carrier admitted that he intended to interfere with Pelosi’s and Mayorkas’s respective abilities to perform their official duties as a member of Congress and as the secretary of DHS.
“Participating in the public political conversation is an important right for all citizens,” U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a DOJ press release. “Nevertheless, threatening our public servants is not protected by the First Amendment and corrodes our ability to engage in peaceful and important public discourse. This Office will not tolerate behavior that crosses the line to criminal threats.”
Carrier was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following the completion of his prison term. The judge ordered Carrier to attend mental health and substance abuse treatment, among other conditions, during that time. He was also ordered to stay away and have no contact with Pelosi or Mayorkas.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Tripp warned that "violent threats targeting elected officials also threaten our democratic system.”
"Today's sentence demonstrates that anyone who sends politically motivated threats of violence to government officials will be investigated by the FBI and held accountable,” Tripp added.
The sentencing comes amid heightened political violence in the country. Pelosi and Mayorkas, in particular, have frequently found themselves the focus of conservatives’ ire in recent years.
In October 2022, Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was hospitalized after a man, looking for the former Speaker, entered their home and attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer.
Mayorkas became the first cabinet secretary to be impeached since the 1870s, in a vote that DHS described as advancing “without a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds.”
A spokesperson for Pelosi declined to comment.
