A jury in Nebraska on Wednesday found a Wyoming man guilty of making threats against President Donald Trump last year while driving through the state headed for Washington, D.C.
Timothy Cessor’s trial had started Monday in U.S. District Court in Omaha.
The jury deliberated for about two hours Wednesday before returning with the verdict finding Cessor guilty, according to court records.
He could get up to five years in federal prison at his sentencing in October.
In an affidavit to charge Cessor, a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service said on Feb. 4, 2019, Cessor was driving from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Washington on Interstate 80 when he stopped to call his parents.
He told them he had a gun and was going to “take care of Trump” and all members of Congress who support him, according to a court filing. But Cessor’s parents persuaded him to drive back to Cheyenne, where his father secured the gun and Cessor agreed to go to a hospital.
The agent learned about the threat after a worker at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center reported a patient on psychiatric hold had made threats to kill Trump. Cessor was detained there out of concerns he might harm himself or others, according to court records.
Investigators later learned he had taken a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol along with two 13-round magazines but had no coherent plan, the agent said.
Cessor told medical personnel he was unhappy with the government shutdown “and believed that he had a responsibility to protect the country from the President.”
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