VIRGINIA
Daniel McMahon, 31, plead guilty Thursday in federal court to one count of threatening an African-American Charlottesville City Council candidate Dan Gathers, according to federal authorities.
Gathers is the co-founder of Charlottesville’s Black Lives Matter chapter, according to the Washington Post. Gathers also served on a committee dedicated to relocating Confederate statues in the wake of the deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017, the Post stated.,
McMahon also plead guilty to one count of cyberstalking a separate victim through Facebook messenger.
McMahon will be sentenced on July 23.
He faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison for threatening D.G. and five years in prison for cyberstalking Victim 2, according to authorities.
“Racially motivated threats of violence have no place in our society and will not be tolerated by the Department of Justice,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. “The defendant in this case violated the civil rights of his victims through intimidation and we are grateful for all the work and collaboration our partners have done on this case.”
“Although the First Amendment protects, without qualification, an individual’s right to hold and express abhorrent political views, it does not license threats of violence,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen for West Virginia. “The Department of Justice is committed to investigating and prosecuting those who weaponize social media to harm others.”
“Peaceable protest is a core American value protected by law,” said U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida. “This defendant violated the law by threatening violence against an African-American individual who planned to announce his candidacy for City Council and an autistic child merely because the child’s mother opposes his extreme racially motivated views. This collaborative prosecution demonstrates that the Department of Justice as a whole will not tolerate these types of threats and intimidation.”
In court, the defendant admitted that he uses the online pseudonyms “Jack Corbin,” “Pale Horse,” “Restore Silent Sam,” and “Dakota Stone,” to promote white supremacy and white nationalist ideology, and to express support for racially-motivated violence, officials stated.
The defendant admitted that in January 2019, upon learning that Gathers, an African-American resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, planned to announce his candidacy for City Council, the defendant used his Jack Corbin account on the social media platform Gab to threaten violence against Gathers because of Gather’s race and because Gather’s was running for office.
McMahon also admitted that his posts used racial slurs and invoked long-standing racial stereotypes and that he intended for D.G. to understand his posts as threats to his safety.
In addition to this, the defendant also admitted to cyberstalking Victim 2 using his “Restore Silent Sam” Facebook account.
In connection with this charge, the defendant admitted that he used Facebook to send Victim 2 numerous intimidating and threatening messages that placed Victim 2 in reasonable fear of harm to Victim 2’s minor child. The defendant acknowledged that Victim 2 has been active in countering white nationalist rallies in her community, officials stated.
The defendant admitted that, because of Victim 2’s activism, he began an online campaign to intimidate her and to extort information from her about her fellow activists. This included sending Victim 2 numerous messages over the course of twelve days in which he threatened to sexually assault Victim 2’s minor daughter, who has autism.
The defendant admitted that, at around the same time that he sent these messages, he also used the internet to conduct searches relating to sexual contact with girls who have autism.
The defendant admitted that his messages reasonably caused Victim 2 serious emotional distress and fear for Victim 2’s child’s safety.
DOJ NOTED:
This case is being investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen of the Western District of Virginia; Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh of the Western District of Virginia; Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel George of the Middle District of Florida; and Trial Attorney Risa Berkower of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.