Former VOA Employee Charged With Threatening Greene

A former Voice of America employee threatened Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and members of her family in a series of calls made from the broadcaster's Washington, DC, headquarters, prosecutors say. Maryland resident Seth Jason, 64, was arrested Thursday, NBC News reports. Prosecutors say he made eight threatening calls to Greene's Georgia district office between Oct. 11, 2023, and Jan. 21 of this year, the day after President Trump's inauguration. He faces charges of influencing a federal official by threat, influencing a federal official by threatening a family member, interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and anonymous telecommunications harassment, according to a news release from the DC US attorney's office.

Capitol Police investigators determined that "the phone calls were made from various phone lines connected to studios and control rooms at Voice of America headquarters, where Jason had worked as a longtime employee," the US attorney's office said. The office said Jason "threatened the use of firearms to kill Rep. Greene, her staff, and their families." The Hill reports that according to his LinkedIn page, Jason had worked at VOA since the early 2000s. Termination notices were sent to most of the organization's staff last month. Jason had been a volunteer reserve officer for the Anne Arundel County Police Department in Maryland since 2016, but the department said Thursday that "he is no longer affiliated" with them.

At a news conference Thursday, acting US Attorney Jeanine Pirro read out some of threats Jason allegedly made, including: "I am looking forward to your book signing. We are all armed and ready to take care of you," the AP reports. Kari Lake, who serves as a special advisor to the agency that oversees VOA, said it angered her that a "taxpayer-funded VOA employee would use taxpayer-funded equipment in a depraved way to threaten the lives of people." "The alleged actions leading to this arrest illustrate only a small part of the past rot at Voice of America and the US Agency for Global Media," she said in a post on X. Lake said she agrees with Trump's call to eliminate the agency.