Concord man sentenced for threatening Nancy Pelosi, Alejandro Mayorkas
UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 1: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds her weekly news conference in the Capitol on Thursday, December 1, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
An East Bay man was sentenced to 11 months in prison for threatening House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
David Allen Carrier, 44, of Concord, pleaded guilty on Dec. 19, 2023 to two counts of making threats against a federal official. A grand jury indicted him on Sept. 12. 2023.
On Jan. 21, 2021, Carrier left a message on the office voicemail of Pelosi, who was at the time the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Carrier threatened to assault Pelosi. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, Carrier admitted he acted with the intent to interfere with her performance as she was engaged with her official duties.
Then on June 30, 2022, Carrier called a Homeland Security hotline and left a voicemail message threatening to assault Mayorkas.
"Participating in the public political conversation is an important right for all citizens," U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a statement. "Nevertheless, threatening our public servants is not protected by the First Amendment and corrodes our ability to engage in peaceful and important public discourse.
This office will not tolerate behavior that crosses the line to criminal threats."
Carrier was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release that will begin after his prison term is completed.
The judge also ordered Carrier to stay away and have no contact, direct or indirect, with Pelosi and Mayorkas, as well as to attend mental health and substance abuse treatment, among other conditions, while on supervised release.