Alabama man pleads guilty to threatening Georgia prosecutor and sheriff over Trump election case

ATLANTA (AP) — An Alabama man pleaded guilty Tuesday to leaving threatening phone messages for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the county sheriff last summer because he was angry over the election-interference investigation into former President Donald Trump.

Arthur Ray Hanson II made the phone calls just over a week before Trump and 18 others were indicted in Fulton County on Aug. 14.

Hanson of Huntsville, Alabama, told a federal judge at his plea hearing Tuesday that he never meant harm to Willis, whose office is prosecuting Trump and the others, or to Sheriff Patrick Labat, whose staff booked the former president at the Fulton County jail and took his mug shot.

“I made a stupid phone call,” Hanson said in court. “I’m not a violent person.”

He will be sentenced at a later date, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bret Hobson told the judge that prosecutors will seek leniency for Hanson because he took responsibility for his actions.

At the plea hearing, Hanson admitted to calling a Fulton County government customer service line on Aug. 6 and leaving voicemails for the prosecutor and the sheriff.

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