A California man was arrested on Wednesday morning for threatening to kill Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington State, as the shootings in Tucson sparked
impassioned conversation about Congressional security on Capitol Hill.
Charles Habermann, 32, of Palm Springs, Calif., was arrested for phone calls he made in December to Mr. McDermott’s office in which he threatened to kill Mr. McDermott, as well as the congressman’ss friends and family, and to put the congressman “in the trash.”
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“The decision to charge this case was made before the tragic events in Arizona,” said Emily Langlie, the spokeswoman. “The arrest had always been anticipated to occur this week.”
She also noted that her office has a history of taking threats against lawmakers seriously. It prosecuted another man for making a threat against a lawmaker – Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington – within the past year. She said that case, including the timing of the ultimate decision to file charges, had unfolded in a very similar fashion to the current investigation.
Mr. Habermann is the second man to be charged with threatening a member of Congress in the last week. On Friday a Colorado man was
arrested for threatening to shoot people at the office of Senator
Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, and set a fire around its perimeter.
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