Over the course of the past three years, a Kaysville, Utah man made over 2,000 phone calls to members of Congress, threatening Democratic lawmakers if they were deemed to be in opposition to President Donald Trump.
Scott Brian Haven, 54, was arrested on Tuesday, and charged in court on Wednesday with interstate transmission of threats to injure members of Congress, the Associated Press reported. He has no history of violent criminal behavior in his record prior to this week’s charges.
The charging documents leave out the names of Democratic lawmakers and staffers that Haven threatened, but detail the extreme lengths he went to in order to strike fear in his subjects.
In one example, Haven made a phone call to a Democratic House member’s office and said he was standing right behind the lawmaker, ready to “shoot him in the head” because that lawmaker was “trying to remove a duly elected President.”
“I’m going to do it right now, are you ready?” he asked the representative before hanging up the phone.
In less than a month, from May 1 to May 28 of 2019, AT&T records show that the phone number registered to Haven made 850 calls were made to the Capitol Switchboard. https://t.co/NLkS4RGuOB pic.twitter.com/TLD1HTpIC8
— Standard-Examiner (@standardex) June 6, 2019
In another instance, Haven told a staffer in an unnamed senator’s office that there were “far more Second Amendment people” in the country “than whiny, crying liberals.” He called back the same office later, telling them that he and others were prepared to act in violent ways toward Democrats.
“We will exercise our Second Amendment rights to address Democrat mobs that threaten conservatives,” Haven said.
The Utah man faces five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 if he’s convicted. U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Paul M. Warner determined that Haven was a danger to the community, ordering him to be detained “pending resolution of the case,” The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Last fall, a federal investigator confronted Haven at his home about the excessive phone calls. Haven acted in a belligerent manner, threatening the agent with violence and denying he was the one who made the calls. He urged the agent to investigate groups like Black Lives Matter instead.
Featured image via Weber County Sheriff’s Office
