ATLANTA (AP) — An Alabama man who left threatening phone messages for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the county sheriff last summer because he was angry over an investigation into former President Donald Trump was sentenced Tuesday to nearly two years in prison.
Arthur Ray Hanson II, of Huntsville, made the phone calls just over a week before Trump and 18 others were indicted in Fulton County in August 2023 over efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Federal prosecutors say Hanson left threatening voicemails laced with profanity and racial slurs for Willis and Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee in Atlanta sentenced Hanson to serve a year and nine months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He also ordered Hanson to pay a fine of $7,500.
Hanson had pleaded guilty to leaving threatening phone messages. He apologized to Willis and Labat during Tuesday’s hearing.
The indictment against Trump returned by a Fulton County grand jury on Aug. 14, 2023, was the fourth criminal case filed against the former president in a matter of months. It accused Trump and his allies of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to try to illegally overturn his narrow loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.
When Labat was asked at a news conference shortly before the indictment happened whether Trump would have a mug shot taken if he was charged, Labat said, “Unless someone tells me differently, we are following our normal practices and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mug shot ready for you.”
Hanson called the Fulton County government customer service line and left voicemails for the prosecutor and the sheriff on Aug. 6, 2023. Prosecutors included transcripts of the messages in a sentencing memo submitted to the court.
In a message for Willis, Hanson warned her to watch out, that she won’t always have people around who can protect her and that there would be moments when she would be vulnerable. “When you charge Trump on that fourth indictment, anytime you’re alone, be looking over your shoulder,” he said, according to the transcript.
In the message for Labat, Hanson threatened the sheriff, warning him not to take a mug shot of Trump. “I'm just telling you that if you take a mugshot of the president and you're the reason it happened, some bad (expletive)'s probably gonna happen to you,” the voice message said, according to court records.
FBI agents traced the calls to Hanson's cellphone. When agents asked him about the calls, he initially denied making them and said he didn't know who Willis and Labat were, prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo. After agents played recordings of the calls for him, he said he was angry about the Trump indictment in Fulton County and that he only meant to make Willis and Labat feel uncomfortable, that he would never harm them, the memo says.
Agents told Hanson to stop making threatening calls, and he said he would, the memo says. But then, about a month later, he called the tip line for the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness to complain about a counterterrorism initiative. He said during that call that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas should be hanged, the memo says.
Kate Brumback, The Associated Press
