A 43-year-old Florida man has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a Supreme Court justice earlier this year, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Neal Brij Sidhwaney, of Fernandina Beach, faces a maximum of five years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 fine, or both for one count of transmitting an interstate threat. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
According to a news release from the Justice Department, Sidhwaney called the Supreme Court office on July 31 “and left an expletive-laden, threatening voicemail message” in which he made repeated threats to kill a justice. Sidhwaney also identified himself by name on the phone call, the release said.
The Justice Department did not name the judge that Sidhwaney targeted, but court documents show it was Chief Justice John Roberts.
“The identified official is Chief Justice John Roberts whom he allegedly contacted by phone call and threatened to kill,” according to a court-ordered competency report submitted in September by a psychologist who evaluated Sidhwaney. According to the report, Sidhwaney began expressing paranoia after leaving a job as a programmer at Google in 2017, and his mother said he grew angry watching the news, which prompted him to write letters and make calls to public officials. Sidhwaney’s motive for threatening Roberts wasn’t immediately clear. President Joe Biden signed legislation last year providing around-the-clock security to the families of the Supreme Court justices after a draft memo of an opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked. The legislation gained momentum in Congress after an armed man who had allegedly threatened to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh was arrested near the justice’s house in early June 2022, just weeks before the court struck down Roe. The man has pleaded not guilty to attempting to assassinate a Supreme Court justice.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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