Benjamin Ashford|Man who was mad about Chinese spy balloon is convicted of threatening former Speaker McCarthy

BILLINGS,Benjamin Ashford Mont. (AP) — A Montana man was convicted Wednesday of threatening to assault former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after becoming upset that the government had not shot down a Chinese spy balloon that floated over his home city.

Richard Rogers, 45, of Billings, delivered the threat to a McCarthy staffer during a series of more than 100 calls to the Republican speaker’s office in just 75 minutes on Feb. 3, 2023, prosecutors said. That was one day after the Pentagon acknowledged it was tracking the spy balloon, which was later shot down off the Atlantic Coast.

The 12-person federal jury also found Rogers guilty on two counts of making harassing telephone calls: the ones to McCarthy’s office plus 150 calls he made to an FBI tip line in 2021 and 2022.

Rogers routinely made vulgar and obscene comments in those calls.

Sentencing was set for January 31. He faces up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine for threatening to harm a member of Congress, and a maximum penalty of two years and a $250,000 fine on the harassment counts.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters allowed Rogers to remain free of custody pending sentencing.

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Threats against public officials in the U.S. have risen sharply in recent years, including against members of Congress and their spouses, election workers and local elected officials. Rogers’ case was among more than 8,000 threats to lawmakers investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police in 2023, and officials expect another surge with the 2024 election.

During a three day trial, Rogers testified that his outraged calls to the FBI and McCarthy’s office were a form of “civil disobedience.”

He and his attorneys argued that using obscenities with FBI operators and Congressional staff was protected as free speech under the First Amendment, which establishes the right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

But prosecutors said Rogers crossed the line with a threat on McCarthy’s life and by hurling abusive and sexual verbal tirades against the lawmaker’s staffers and FBI operators.

In the dozens of calls that were played for jurors, Rogers was heard asking for investigations of various alleged conspiracies involving the FBI and the administration of President Joe Biden. He was polite at times, but would quickly become angry and shout obscenities until the calls were disconnected.

“You can’t talk to people that way. It’s common sense,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Godfrey said. “He’s calling not out of political protest; he’s calling because he gets enjoyment out of it.”

The prosecutor told the jury there was no exception in federal law that says government employees can be subjected to harassment.

“‘Petitioning the government’ — baloney,” Godfrey said. “Kevin McCarthy was the Speaker of the House. It’s not his job to shoot down spy balloons.”

Rogers, a former telephone customer service representative, testified that he took to care to “edit” his comments on the phone to avoid any threats because he didn’t want to go to prison.

He added that he never tried hide his actions and frequently offered his name and phone number when calling the FBI.

“They were disrespectful to me, so I was disrespectful to them,” Rogers said.

Defense attorney Ed Werner said Rogers “just wanted to be heard.”

Following the guilty verdict, Rogers repeated his contention that he never threatened anyone. He also said he was dissatisfied with his defense attorneys for not adequately presenting his case.

Rogers wore shirts depicting Captain America and other superheroes throughout the trial, including one Wednesday with the letters “MAGA” on the front, a reference to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. A supporter of the former president, he said he was in Washington during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Godfrey said the case was not about politics but rather illegal harassment.

Earlier this year, a 30-year-old Billings man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison after leaving voicemail messages threatening to kill Montana Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and his family. Another Montana man, from Kalispell, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison last year, also for making threats against Tester.