MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for threatening two U.S. senators.
Federal prosecutors say Jason Kenneth Bell of Cochran called the office of New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer in March 2017. He said in messages that if Schumer didn’t have personal protection, “I would hit you until I couldn’t lift my arms anymore.”
Bell also called the office of South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott in October 2017. He threatened to kill Scott and asked “are we as white people supposed to just stand for this injustice” or do what Dylan Roof did. Roof was convicted of killing nine black people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Bell was sentenced Thursday. He had pleaded guilty to two counts of anonymous telecommunications harassment.