A Florida man who threatened to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar, writing that she was on a “hit list,” was sentenced to probation, according to court records.
David Hannon, 67, of Sarasota, was sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation and fined $7,000 in connection with the threat, which was emailed in 2019.
In the email, Hannon, who was a supporter of former President Donald Trump, called Omar, D-Minn., a “radical Muslim,” threatened “mass assassinations” of what he called “radicals” and said Omar was on a “hit list,” according to court documents.
The email also said Omar and three other members of Congress would die.
It was sent after Omar and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan held a news conference at which they criticized Trump, prosecutors wrote in their arguments asking for a prison term.
Hannon pleaded guilty in April to a count of threatening a federal official.
He apologized in court Wednesday, saying that his wife had died of cancer and that he has struggled with alcoholism, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“I’m very, very sorry and very remorseful about my behavior that night,” Hannon said, according to the newspaper. “I can’t believe I would do something as heinous as that.”
Omar and the three other members of Congress held the news conference in 2019 to respond to attacks that Trump had made, which they called “openly racist.”
Trump singled out Omar, a naturalized citizen who came to the U.S. from Somalia as a child.
Prosecutors asked that a judge sentence Hannon to 10 months in prison, writing in a sentencing memo that his conduct was “offensive to our system of government, and quite frankly, frightening,” and noting that he threatened violence.
Hannon’s attorney, Michael Perry, said probation was a just result.
He said the threatening email was “a spontaneous reaction to the news reporting on Rep. Omar’s comments about President Trump fueled by his excessive drinking mixed with medication,” and he said Hannon is embarrassed and ashamed.
Omar, the first African refugee elected to Congress, was sworn in in 2019. She is also the first woman of color to represent Minnesota and one of the first two Muslim American women elected to Congress.