Michael Anthony Gallagher, 71, stated he was affected by the “polarization” of the Trump Presidency when he determined to threaten dozen of distinguished Democrats with postcards like this. (Northern District Court docket Information)
SAN FRANCISCO — In a uncommon rebuke of prosecutors, a federal decide handed down a jail sentence to a California man who spent some 4 years sending dozens of racist loss of life threats on personalised, handmade postcards, court docket information present.
Michael Anthony Gallagher, 71, pleaded responsible final August to mailing a threatening postcard to Rep. Maxine Waters, signed “KKK,” however his crimes from 2016 to 2020 went effectively past that single offense. The U.S. Division of Justice argued a one-year probation time period, and no jail, was a adequate consequence.
However on the December sentencing listening to, U.S. District Choose Richard Seeborg determined to jail Gallagher for 4 months, in line with a minute order of the listening to. Gallagher was ordered to report back to the Bureau of Prisons by the primary week of March to start his sentence.
Federal court docket, in comparison with California’s justice system, offers judges immense leeway in figuring out sentences. They're given common sentencing pointers and tasked with discovering a time period “adequate, however not higher than mandatory,” however aren’t certain by both facet. Nonetheless, most judges within the Northern District of California will choose a sentence between what each events are asking; it’s uncommon for a decide to transcend what prosecutors search.
A transcript of the listening to wasn’t instantly obtainable.
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors say that over 4 years Gallagher despatched at the very least 75 comparable threats to politicians everywhere in the United States, concentrating on those that had been crucial of former President Donald Trump. Gallagher wrote an apology letter saying, “I'm painfully sorry and ashamed.”
One postcard, included in a sentencing memo, informed Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “We’re going to hold your head off the Washington Monument, you piece of Communist (expletive).” One other known as Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer a “Communist pig” and threatened to shoot him within the head.
The lengthy record of victims additionally included: U.S. Representatives Jackie Speier, Anna Eshoo, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Adam Schiff; U.S. Senators Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Mitt Romney, Richard Blumenthal; then-Senator Kamala Harris, California Governors Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, and State Senator Jerry Hill, prosecutors stated.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Joseph Tartakovsky wrote in court docket information that the threats “induced anxiousness, even terror, to recipients and people probably in hurt’s manner,” however caught by his advice of a one-year probation time period.
“That is primarily based on various elements, starting with Mr. Gallagher’s immediate request for forgiveness and real contrition, which incorporates his assertion to an agent after the search of his home that he had been ‘scared straight,’ ” Tartakovsky wrote. “Different elements embody his age, his lack of a previous document, the absence of proof that he had any intent truly to hold out any of his threats, his insignificant probability of re-offending, and the sufficiency of the conviction itself to offer common and particular deterrence.”
A protection sentencing memo argued Gallagher was “venting” political frustration, and didn’t absolutely grasp what he was doing till the U.S. Secret Service confirmed up at his home two years in the past. Prosecutors, although, stated Gallagher was seen on surveillance video mailing the postcards and held them by their edges, apparently to keep away from leaving fingerprints.
In his letter, Gallagher apologized for “a horrible, misguided factor to do with my time,” and stated he cringed when studying a sufferer affect assertion by Speier, when it dawned on him that she survived the Jonestown Bloodbath. He additionally wrote that whereas he steadily used a racist slur directed towards immigrants, “I've nothing in opposition to authorized immigrants.”
“All through the final presidency, I used to be impacted by the political polarization of our nation. That’s after I began on the reproachable path of mailing threatening postcards, for which I'm painfully sorry and ashamed,” he wrote. “I feel I believed I used to be sending a message about my political beliefs. However now I notice that these views and my conduct had been terribly misguided and shameful.”