A man in New York City who threatened to kill Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld and Laura Ingraham and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has been convicted. According to a press release from the Department of Justice, Rickey Johnson was convicted following a one-week trial on Thursday.
Johnson reportedly issued threats via direct messages to Manchin, Gutfeld, and Ingraham and videos publicly posted to Instagram.
The release notes that Johnson first sent Fox News’ Gutfeld a private message saying, “you will be killed,” on January 30, 2021. He later posted public videos threatening to kill all three, stating he would “kill” Ingraham with his “bare hands” and conveying Manchin should be “executed.”
“Rather than express his political differences constructively, Rickey Johnson escalated his discord by instilling fear,” United States Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“Johnson’s attempts to scare and stifle a U.S. Senator and two Fox News hosts were federal crimes for which he has now been convicted by a New York jury.”
The New York City man was convicted of two counts of transmitting threatening interstate communications, each bearing a maximum sentence of five years in prison and one count of threatening a public official, which could get him a sentence of up to 10 years.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
