In Billings, Montana, a local man is facing a significant prison sentence after being convicted of threatening to assault former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Angry with the government’s response to a Chinese surveillance balloon that passed over his city, Richard Rogers, 45, is set to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters. Despite the serious nature of his threats, this is Rogers’ first brush with the law. The jury found him guilty last year for making threats towards McCarthy and repeatedly contacting the FBI and congressional staff with vulgar language and obscene remarks.
Facing a potential maximum sentence of six years in prison, Rogers is also liable for a fine amounting to $250,000. Given his lack of prior criminal activity, the federal guidelines suggest a lesser sentence, prompting Rogers’ legal team to propose probation instead. Standing as a former phone customer service worker, Rogers made continuous calls to McCarthy’s office, totaling over 100 within a span of 75 minutes on February 3, 2023. This rash action happened a day after the Pentagon confirmed it was monitoring the balloon, which was ultimately shot down over the Atlantic Ocean.
At his trial, Rogers claimed that his persistent calls to the FBI and McCarthy were acts of civil disobedience. His lawyers defended him, explaining that Rogers merely desired to have his voice heard. However, the prosecution urged the court to impose a strong penalty, arguing that threats against government figures should not be misinterpreted as protected speech under the First Amendment. They recommended a two-year prison term to communicate a powerful deterrent message to the public.
Prosecutors stated in their court briefing that Rogers’ behavior plays into the dangerous notion that the First Amendment offers complete immunity from repercussions as long as the conduct is cloaked in the guise of ‘political protest.’ On the other side, Rogers’ attorney, Daniel Ball, requested that his client be granted supervised release rather than prison time.
There has been a sharp rise in threats against U.S. public officials in recent years, including those aimed at Congress members, their families, election workers, and local officials. Rogers’ case is only one among the more than 8,000 threats against lawmakers that the U.S. Capitol Police investigated in 2023. In a related Montana incident, a 30-year-old man was sentenced last year to two and a half years in federal prison for threatening to kill former Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester and his family. Another man from Montana received a similar sentence in 2023 after making threats against Tester.
