Last week, 60-year-old Houston man Brian Michael Gaherty was arrested for threatening to kill Maxine Waters, the US House representative for California’s 43rd Congressional District, which covers places like Compton, Inglewood, and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Gaherty has been charged with “four counts of making threats in interstate communications and four counts of threatening a United States official”. Waters was one of several congresswomen that Gaherty sent racist and violent threats to.
According to court documents, between August and November 2022, Gaherty called Congresswoman Waters’ office located in California and told a member of her staff that he was going to assault the congresswoman. He also left at least four threatening voicemails, including a threat to “cut your black (expletive) throat” on Aug. 8, 2022.
On Nov. 16, 2022, at 4:37 p.m., court documents show Gaherty called Congresswoman Waters’ Hawthorne office and spoke to a staff member, and said, “Tell Congresswoman Maxine Waters when I see her on the street I’m going to bust her upside her head.”
Gaherty also left a voicemail for another congresswoman, on top of threatening a local newsreporter.
“My people going to do some damage on you. You know what I’m saying?” Gaherty said in a September voicemail to another unidentified congresswoman, according to the affidavit. “Now we’re not going to kill you. We’re going to make you suffer…”
On November 17th, the district director of Maxine Waters’s office reported the threat made the previous day to the US Capitol Police; voicemails made in previous months were also presented as evidence. US Capitol agents were able to trace the phone number of the threatening caller; the suspect called from a TracFone in Houston. The following month, FBI agents came to Gaherty’s home.
On Dec. 15, 2022, the FBI located Gahetry [sic] and went to his home to question him. During the interview, court documents state Gahetry [sic] invited the agents inside his home and showed them a bag full of cell phones that he claimed: “did not work.” He also showed them receipts for a TraceFone [sic] and a serial number, which matched one of the phones used to call Congresswoman Waters.
Although Gaherty was released on $100,000 bond, he was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury. He is expected to appear for an arraignment in the United States District Court in Los Angeles for the next few weeks or so. In addition to the US Capitol Police and FBI investigating the case, Assistant US Attorney Laura A Alexander of the General Crimes Section will prosecute, if Gaherty is found guilty.
Each count of making a threat to a United States official carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The charge of making threats in interstate communications carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Some Republicans do feel that Maxine Waters is facing karma, if KPRC-TV’s viewer comments are anything to go by.
“I guess Waters is not happy with her own advice! Remember she called for this.
‘If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere,’”
”The old bitty, if you see her in the restaurant or the service station get in her face…oh wait, I sound like her….never mind.”
”She has dished out quite a few threats herself.,,”
“There are no Trump supporters in jail, that would be democrats. We're all at work.”