Charles T. Germany, of Walker, Louisiana, pled guilty before Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick to interstate transmission of a threat to injure another after he was charged with making two profanity-laced threats against a Florida congresswoman.
Germany called the Washington office of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy twice on or about May 27, 2022, and left threatening voice messages each time, according to Department of Justice officials.
Murphy was appointed to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
On December 20, 2021, Murphy announced that she would not run for reelection to a fourth term in 2022.
An affidavit from an FBI domestic terrorism investigator did not say why Germany targeted the Orlando-area representative, who is the first Vietnamese-American woman elected to Congress.
Murphy was born in 1978 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, before leaving the country with her family in 1979. After growing up in Northern Virginia, Murphy attended the College of William & Mary and Georgetown University.
Before becoming a member of Congress, she worked as a national security specialist at the United States Department of Defense, an executive at Sungate Capital, and a business professor at Rollins College.
On May 27, Germany called the congresswoman’s office around 9:50 a.m. and left an expletive-filled voicemail threatening to kill her, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the FBI, Germany said, “Yeah. Um, emergency response would be nice. You democratic buffoons. What are you doing to our f*** country? What the hell? I swear to God. If I could get up there, I’d kill every one of you. Y’all the stupidest mother****** on this planet. What the f*** is wrong with you? Don’t you see what you doing to this country? That buffoon you got as a president, which he got elected very wrongly and you know it, look at his son. What the f*** are you doing in our country? I’ll kill you myself, you b****.”
In a voicemail message around 1:09 p.m. Germany said, “Hello? Some congresswoman. You Joe Biden f****** piece of sh**. F*** you!”
The U.S. Capitol Police, citing a potential emergency, asked AT&T for information about the caller and the company told officers it belonged to Germany and that his subscriber address was Trailer 31 at a mobile home park along North Walker Road in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
“AT&T also provided a one-time location ping which shows the device’s current location…. When entered into Google Maps, the resulting pin appears in the vicinity of the subscriber’s listed address,” the affidavit said.
According to admissions made during his plea, Germany knowingly placed the telephone calls from his home in Walker, Louisiana, to a member of the House of Representatives from Florida containing a true threat to injure said member. During the call, he left a recorded voice message which was viewed by the member and their staff as a true threat.
This matter was investigated by the United States Capitol Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer M. Kleinpeter with the assistance of Trial Attorney Kevin Nunnally of the Department of Justice’s Counterterrorism Section.