Federal authorities arrested a 48-year-old Longview man Wednesday for allegedly making hundreds of threatening, racist and antisemitic phone calls to members of Congress over the last two years.
Mark Leonetti was scheduled to appear in federal court in Tacoma Wednesday over accusations that he left more than 400 voicemails threatening bodily harm in 2021 alone to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, according to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
He is suspected of seven counts of making interstate threats and could face five years in federal prison, the DOJ reports.
The most recent voicemail was left last week, despite law enforcement and mental health professionals contacting Leonetti several times over the last two years, according to the department.
Officials report Leonetti denied intentions to go to Washington, D.C. to harm others and also said “nonsensical” comments, such as he was on the phone with Russia during a meeting with law enforcement agents.
None of the roughly five federally elected officials who received alleged threats are named in court filings, but documents report Leonetti threatened to murder a U.S. House representative, “barbecue” a senator and defecate on another senator. He repeatedly used antisemetic and racist slurs and made threats of physical and sexual violence in the voicemails, court records state.
Leonetti does not blatantly reveal his political views in the voicemails, according to court records, but in September he told a U.S. House representative “I understand it’s a personal score for you after Jan. 6” and that “Eugene, Oregon BLMs are the bigger colonialists than your MAGAs are anyway.”
The U.S. Department of Justice reports the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police and Longview Police Department are investigating the case.
