FL Man Guilty Of Threatening Two Members Of Congress: DOJ

FORT PIERCE, FL — A Palm Beach Gardens man pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Fort Pierce to making threatening phone calls to two members of Congress and a state's attorney, according to a Department of Justice news release.

Though the news release doesn’t include the victims’ names, the threats were made against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx in Chicago, The Hill reported.

Paul Vernon Hoeffer, 60, admitted that in March 2019, he called a congresswoman in Washington, D.C., and threatened to come a "long, long, way" to rattle her head with bullets and cut her head off.

On the same day, Hoeffer called the Cook County, Illinois, state's attorney, telling her bullets were going to "rattle her brain," the DOJ said.

He also admitted to calling another congresswoman in New York in November 2020 and telling her that he would "rip her head off,” cautioning “her to sleep with one eye open,” the DOJ said.

Hoeffer was charged with three counts of interstate transmission of threats to injure in December.

He faces up to 15 years in federal prison when he’s sentenced April 1.