A Massachusetts man was arrested over a recent phone call where he allegedly threatened to kill a prominent federal official and two members of their family, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Michael Mahoney, a 62-year-old from South Dennis, on Cape Cod, was arrested Wednesday morning on a charge of transmitting interstate threats to injure another person, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts.
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Mahoney allegedly used a series of vulgarities on the phone call, at 10:15 p.m. on Friday. Prosecutors said he called a relative of the official, who was at dinner outside of Massachusetts, and confirmed their full name, then started to scream about killing them, their spouse and the official.
None of the alleged victims have been publicly identified.
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The relative hung up the phone after about 12 seconds, and didn't pick up when Mahoney called back, according to prosecutors.
While the call went through with no caller ID, investigators tracked the calls to Mahoney, according to prosecutors. They said in a criminal complaint that he wouldn't answer the door at his home on Saturday.
Mahoney appeared in Boston's federal court on Wednesday, where he was represented by a court-appointed attorney. The lawyer said after the hearing they would be entering a plea of not guilty.
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"He has no criminal record," said Mahoney's attorney, Edward Ryan, Jr. "He's never owned a gun, he's got no history of violence. He's depressed, he's a very nice man, very calm, but you can see he's got some issues."
The attorney didn't say who the official allegedly targeted was.
"All I can tell you is there's a lot of people upset about the comings and goings of what's going on in the country," said Ryan. "So maybe he was upset about that, maybe not, I don't know."
"There's no sinister motivation," said Ryan. "This isn't a guy sitting on a roof, this isn't a guy prowling around on a golf course."
The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of probation and up to $250,000 in fines.
