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U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Sidhartha Kumar Mathur, age 35, of West Friendship, Maryland to two years’ probation including eight weekends in the federal bureau of prisons and six months of home detention with electronic monitoring for making false statements to federal agents, relating to the death threats he sent to Andy Harris, a Member of Congress representing Maryland. Judge Bennett also ordered Mathur to preform 100 hours of community service.
The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner and Acting Chief Tom Manger of the United States Capitol Police.
According to his guilty plea, in December 2020, Mathur communicated a threat in a webmail message on the congressional representative’s website. Mathur’s threats included violent statements such as “I will kill you and blow up your office if you try to take my vote away” and “I know where you and your family lives. You will be ended.” Mathur listed the name and previous address of a former classmate and neighbor (Individual B) for the webmail contact information.
Mathur also left a threatening voice message on thr representative’s District Office voicemail stating similar threats including, “If you even mess with my vote, I’m going to come and slit your throat and I’ll kill your family.”
During an interview with special agents of the United States Capitol Police, Mathur confirmed the phone number used to place the threatening voicemail belonged to him and that he called the congressional member out of anger.
As detailed in his plea agreement, Mathur further acknowledged that Individual B was a former neighbor and classmate. However, Mathur falsely denied responsibility for the webmail threat submitted in Individual B’s name. The agents reiterated that providing false statements to federal agents was a felony offense. Mathur continued to falsely deny responsibility for the threatening webmail messages written in Individual B’s name. When given a final opportunity to correct his false statement, Mathur again falsely denied making the webmail threat.