A New Hampshire woman pleaded guilty today to sending multiple threatening communications to a Michigan election official in the wake of the 2020 election.
According to court documents, Katelyn Jones, 25, of Epping, made multiple threats in November 2020 to the chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, which oversees elections in Wayne County, Michigan. First, on Nov. 18, 2020, Jones sent a series of text messages to the official’s personal cell phone containing threats to injure the official and the official’s minor child. Jones’s text messages to the official included graphic photographs of a bloody, deceased, nude, mutilated woman lying on the ground as well as a photograph of the official’s minor child. Second, also on Nov. 18, 2020, Jones made posts to an Instagram account associated with the official that also contained threats to injure the official and the official’s minor child. For example, Jones posted on the official’s Instagram account that the official’s minor child was “beautiful” and that it would “be a shame if something happened to her.”
Jones pleaded guilty to making interstate threats. She is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison for the Eastern District of Michigan, and Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.
The FBI Detroit Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane N. Princ for the Eastern District of Michigan and Trial Attorney Jonathan E. Jacobson of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.
Read more at the Justice Department
