Five days after the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol, a marijuana industry activist living in St. Paul called and threatened an unnamed U.S. representative, saying he planned to cause the person pain "in every way possible," according to charges filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota and announced Friday.
St. Paul man charged with threatening U.S. representative five days after attack on Capitol
Charges say St. Paul man vowed to leave Congress member "terrified."
January 23, 2021 at 3:46AM
On the afternoon of Jan. 11, 32-year-old Jason Robert Karimi called the politician, whose name is redacted from court documents, and left a voice message.
"I want to see you as scared as possible, terrified and [defecating] your pants," said Karimi, according to charging documents.
"We're coming for ya," Karimi continued. "We're going to [expletive] you up and we're going to cause you pain in every way possible … we're going to end all political power you have [and] make it so you can't even walk in anything but a wheelchair."
Karimi also said the person's house had been vandalized but that "wasn't far enough," and he accused one of the politician's relatives of sexually assaulting a child, according to the charges.
The politician shared the voice mail with Capitol police, and authorities traced the number to Karimi, who was living in an apartment in the 1300 block of Grand Avenue in St. Paul. When an FBI agent contacted him, Karimi said, "Is this about the voice mails?" according to court documents.
Karimi has actively blogged for a website that promotes marijuana policy in Iowa called "WeedPress," and he's appeared on local television stations there commenting on the industry.
He told the FBI agent he aspires to lobby the U.S. government on marijuana. He planned to move to South Dakota, and he's been temporarily living with a friend in St. Paul, he said.
Karimi told the agent he intended only "political pain," and said he frequently uses the tactic of "political threatening" to get noticed, according to court documents. He told the FBI agent he once expressed his intentions to a lawyer to "rip his son's guts out" and feed them to the son.
Karimi has been charged with one count of interstate communication of a threat. He is being held in Sherburne County jail.
Andy Mannix • 612-673-4036
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