American man jailed for threatening to kill judge in Michael Flynn case Reuters

Jan Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters)-On Monday, a New York man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening to kill the judge who handled the criminal case of former President Donald Trump’s assistant Michael Flynn.

U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden stated at the court hearing that the decision reflected the “despicable” nature of the death threats issued by the defendant Frank Caporuso, who was in his early 50s.

According to Caporuso’s plea to the prosecutor, he called the chamber of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan (the federal judge who handled the Flynn case) in May 2020 and left a 30-second, expletive Voice mail.

“You won’t be safe,” the voicemail said. “A hot piece of lead will pierce your skull.” Then he threatened that if the judge did not withdraw from the case, he would kill Sullivan and his staff.

McFadden said in a court hearing on Monday that he did not believe that Caporuso was an electronics salesperson. He said he had been drinking heavily and he had no intention of threatening.

Flynn was accused of being part of a former US special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s influence on Trump’s 2016 US presidential election.

Retired Army General Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI about his interaction with the Russian ambassador to the United States in January 2017. Flynn later tried to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that the prosecutor deceived him into reaching a plea agreement. Trump later pardoned him.