A California man pleaded guilty Thursday to threatening
Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, federal prosecutors said.



Provided by NBC News



Eugene Huelsman, 59, left a voicemail at the U.S. representative’s Florida office on
Jan. 9, 2021, in which he said, in part, “I’m gonna put a bullet in you" and called him
a "tyrant," according to court documents.

Huelsman, of Thousand Oaks, which is near Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to one
count of transmission of a threat in interstate commerce, the U.S. Attorney’s Office
for the Northern District of Florida said in a statement.

The charge carries up to five years in prison, but plea agreement documents do not
appear to lay out a possible sentencing range.

Court documents also don’t specify why Huelsman made the threatening call.
But it was made days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a
mob of supporters of then-president Donald Trump, who had lost the November election.

Huelsman’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment
Thursday night.

Huelsman had been investigated in 2018 by the Secret Service “for prior social
media postings related to member of a former president’s family,” a document
associated with the plea agreement says. It does not name the president.

Sentencing is set for June 30.