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A 61-year-old Texas man who threatened to kill Rep. Maxine Waters has been sentenced to 33 months in prison.
Brian Michael Gaherty of Houston was sentenced Monday and fined $10,000 by a federal judge. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner applied a hate crime enhancement to Gaherty's sentence after finding that he targeted Waters, who is Black, because of her race.
At the sentencing hearing, the California Democrat told the judge that her family members live in fear because of the threats that Gaherty made against her.
“This growing effort to target people of color and women of color ... has given me nightmares. I am in fear of my life,” Waters said.
Gaherty pleaded guilty to one count of threatening a U.S. official in January and admitted to threatening assault and murder against Waters in four separate voicemails, "each of which contained a violent threat, profanity, and racist and misogynistic language," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Gaherty first threatened to kill Waters in August 2022, warning her to "move" because he had a "contract" on her life. After authorities told Gaherty to stop, he again threatened Waters in November of that year for having contacted law enforcement. He was indicted in April 2023 on four counts of making threats in interstate communications and four counts of threatening a U.S. official.
Violent threats against public officials have escalated in the past few years. Studies have shown that women of color who run for office face disproportionate rates of violent threats and that such hostility has turned many away from seeking office.
Gaherty's lawyer, Joseph Vinas, told NBC News that his client has apologized to Waters. Vinas added that, if not for his client's "mental health condition he currently suffers as a result of being a victim of violent crime himself, this never would have occurred.”