CRIME
Montana Man Admits Threatening To Kill Sen. Jon Tester, Allegedly Threatened Biden
jontester/Instagram
A Montana man on Friday pleaded guilty to threatening to kill U.S. Senator Jon Tester, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana announced.
Anthony James Cross, 30, pleaded guilty to threats to injure and murder a U.S. Senator. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison with three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a second charge of threats against President Joe Biden. The plea agreement still has to be accepted by the court.
According to court documents, Cross admitted he left two voicemails at Tester’s offices in Billings, Mont., and Washington, D.C., in the early morning hours of April 17, 2023. In the first message, Cross said that “Jon Tester…is gonna die a horrible death and so is your family…youre not gonna do anything about this.”
In the second message, Cross said, “I swear to God, you and your family will suffer such a horrendous death. And its not going to be by some white boy, no its gonna be by some Indian like me…Im gonna kill every single one of your (obscenity) family members.”
Law enforcement traced the phone number used to leave the voicemails to Cross.
Tester previously served as a state senator before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2007. He is currently the only Democrat to hold statewide office in Montana.
According to prosecutors, Google also contacted the FBI on April 25, 2023, regarding threatening comments allegedly made by Cross on YouTube.
The comments included: Im going to kill every trans I see; I will personally kill Joe Biden; and We are actively hunting down and killing any trans in our major cities. You wont hear about it until trump overcomes his indictment and Biden loses the re-election.’
Cross allegedly admitted to law enforcement that he made the comments posted on YouTube using his cell phone.
U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters scheduled Cross’s sentencing for May 1, which is when the court will decide whether to accept the plea agreement.
TMX contributed to this article.
