Howard County Man Sidhartha Mathur Charged With Making Threat Against Congressman He Felt Would 'Mess With' His Vote
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Howard County man is charged with making a threat against a federal official over concerns the representative would "mess with" his vote.
According to an affidavit, Sidhartha Kumar Mathur, 34, of West Friendship, left a voicemail at an office for an unnamed Maryland representative around 5:45 p.m. on December 10.
In the voicemail, he threatened to kill the representative and his family "if you even mess with my vote."
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Around the same time, the representative's office got a message through their website that included a threat to blow up the representative's office and kill him "if you try to take my vote away."
The next day, police interviewed Mathur at his home, where he reportedly admitted to leaving the threatening voicemail but denied writing the online message despite officials telling him it came from an IP address at his home.
According to the affidavit, he "acknowledged that he may have taken his statements too far and indicated that his statements were conditional." Mathur "'take(s) the threat seriously that my vote is going to be taken away,'" he said.
Mathur had an initial appearance in the case on Wednesday, where a judge ordered him to be released with conditions, including that he not have contact with the representative. The affidavit was unsealed Wednesday after Mathur was arrested, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said.
If convicted, Mathur could face up to 10 years in prison.
