A Voice of America (VOA) employee has been charged with threatening to kill Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Seth Jason, who was employed by the US’ largest international broadcaster for more than two decades, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, after allegedly making death threats against the firebrand Republican congresswoman.
Mr Jason, from Edgewater, Maryland, has been indicted on four charges which include influencing a federal official by threat, and was due to appear before a judge on Thursday.
He was arrested by US Capitol police after an investigation traced phone calls made to Ms Greene’s offices in Georgia from the Voice of America headquarters in Washington DC.
In eight calls, Mr Jason is alleged to have threatened to use a gun to kill Ms Greene, her staff and their families between Oct 11 2023 and Jan 21 2025, the day after Donald Trump returned to office.
He also allegedly threatened to kidnap and injure the Georgia congresswoman.
‘No mercy and no excuses’
Jeanine Pirro, the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement: “You threaten a public official and you face the full force of the law crushing down on you.
“There will be no mercy and no excuses.”
According to LinkedIn, Mr Jason began his career at VOA in 2001, working as a gaffer, studio supervisor and lighting director.
Kari Lake, the senior adviser for the US agency for global media, to which VOA belongs, has gutted the broadcaster since her appointment earlier this year, instituting mass lay-offs.
“I am sickened by what Congresswoman [Marjorie Taylor Greene], her staff and their families had to go through as the threats persisted for 15 months,” Ms Lake said in a statement on social media.
“It angers me that a taxpayer-funded VOA employee, would use taxpayer-funded equipment in a depraved way to threaten the lives of people, including an elected official. If he is found guilty, I hope he is sentenced to the maximum amount of time behind bars.”
Last month, hundreds of VOA reporters were sacked by the Trump administration, which claimed it was because the broadcaster was “riddled with dysfunction, bias and waste”, depriving it of most of its remaining staff and effectively shutting it down.
VOA has been approached for comment.