A Texas man, Gaherty, was sentenced to nearly three years in prison on Monday for making a series of death threats to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). In April 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Gaherty for the threatening phone calls he made to Waters in 2022.
Gaherty pleaded guilty in January to one count of threatening a United States official. According to his plea agreement, he admitted to making threats of assault and murder to Waters on four separate occasions in August and November 2022. The threats were intended to impede, interfere, or intimidate Waters as she carried out her duties as a congresswoman.
The threatening messages included statements such as “he and his boys ‘in the area’ had a ‘contract’ on her life” and “you better move.” Even after being contacted by law enforcement officials, who warned him to disengage, Gaherty continued to send threatening voicemails to Waters.
In October 2022, authorities warned Gaherty to stop making threats, but he persisted, leaving Waters two additional voicemails in November 2022. In these messages, he told Waters that she “done [expletive] up” by reporting his threats to law enforcement and stated, “This ain’t no threat. It’s a… promise.” He also threatened to meet Waters “on the street” and “get in [her] face,” and warned her that he and his “crowd” had a contract to “take [her]… out.”
