An Alaska man was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison for threatening to murder the state’s U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, because he believed they and other politicians were destroying the U.S., reports Courthouse News Service. A judge ordered Jay Johnson, 65, to pay a $5,000 fine, and Johnson agreed to forfeit seven firearms found at his home, which he wasn’t allowed to own because of a previous felony conviction. The FBI tracked Johnson down last October after he left 17 threatening voicemails for the two senators over five months. In the messages, he ranted how he was “sick and tired of all of you fucking politicians that continue to destroy our fucking country,” and how he would use “illegals for target practice.”
Johnson has a history of alcohol abuse and was convicted on DUI charges six times. When he was arrested last year, he was driving to Fairbanks International Airport even though his license had been suspended for 99 years because of a 2016 felony DUI conviction. That conviction stemmed from Johnson driving at twice the speed limit with a pistol in his shoulder holster. In the current case, prosecutors said, “Sadly, political violence of all stripes has become a clear and present danger to public safety and the functioning of our democracy." Johnson’s lawyer, Jason Weiner, said, “There was never any chance that anyone was going to be physically hurt by Mr. Johnson ... His actions ... were the product of pain, prescription medications, and self-medication through alcohol legally obtained.”