A Texas man was charged Thursday with threatening a federal agent apparently involved in the Hunter Biden investigation and promising agents would be thrown in jail after a new president is elected.
Names are not listed in the indictment, but the threatened FBI agent “was known to have been involved in an investigation into an HB laptop,” and the threatening phone call was made Tuesday after “HB” was convicted in connection with a gun purchase in 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said.
Timothy Muller, 43, was arrested Thursday morning outside his home in Fort Worth and is charged with threatening interstate communications and influencing, obstructing or retaliating against a federal official, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
He called the FBI agent, whose name came up in media reports during Hunter Biden’s trial, which ended in a conviction, at 5:03 p.m. the day the verdict in Biden’s case was announced, prosecutors said.
“You can run, but you can’t [expletive] hide,” Muller said in a voicemail that also included allegations of child pornography and abuse, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The president’s son has never been charged with any such crimes.
A jury in Delaware convicted Biden, the son of President Joe Bidenon three federal weapons counts Tuesday related to buying and possessing a gun while addicted to illegal drugs.
Muller also apparently referred in the voicemail to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen as part of threats against the agent, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
“So here’s how it’s going to go: [T’s] We’re going to win re-election, and then we’re going [expletive] go through the FBI and just start throwing yourself [expletive]is in prison,” Muller said, according to the U.S. Department of Justice statement. “Or you can steal another election, and then the guns will come out.”
The affidavit, part of a criminal complaint, lists the candidate only as “T.” A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office would not confirm the identities of “HB” and “T.” mentioned in the criminal complaint.
Muller also threatened the officer’s family and called the officer “treacherous,” the affidavit said.
He sent a text to the officer saying, “Did you do that? [redacted] Do you really think you could disenfranchise 75 million Americans and not die? Lol,” the statement said.
False claims about a stolen 2020 election are widely believed among Trump supporters, and many have indicated they are reluctant to accept the 2024 election results if Trump does not win. Trump has repeatedly and wrongly cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election, which he lost.
Trump’s 2024 campaign has increasingly pushed a message of retaliation and vengeance after he was convicted of 34 crimes in New York court late last month.
Muller was ordered held in custody pending a detention and preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday, court records show. A federal public defender listed as appointed to represent him did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
