A man arrested in Washington, D.C., had been texting about wanting to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., according to the FBI.
The arrest of Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr. came Thursday — the night after the attack on the Capitol.
When FBI agents confronted the Georgia man at a Washington motel, they said he told them that he had two firearms in his truck, according to the arrest warrant obtained by WGCL-TV. Agents found an assault rifle, two handguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He also admitted to sending text messages to friends.
The FBI said one of the texts read: “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi’s speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on live TV.” The message was sent on Thursday.
Meredith told police he had arrived in Washington too late to attend the protest on Wednesday.
His arrest warrant noted that Meredith had also sent another text message threatening to run Pelosi over with his truck. And he also predicted that “within 12 days, many in our country will die,” the FBI said.
CBS News said it learned the FBI considers the suspect to be mentally unstable.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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