CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Chicago Heights man with a history of leaving vulgar messages for federal lawmakers will remain in custody after prosecutors said he threatened to shoot up the inauguration of President Biden.
Louis Capriotti, 45, was arrested last week and charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.
Authorities released the vulgar voicemail late Thursday.
“If these motherf***ing a** Republicans and these Democrat f***ing terrorists think that Joe Biden is going to put his hand on the Bible and walk into that f***ing White House on January 20th, they’re sadly f***ing mistaken,” Capriotti is heard saying in the Dec. 29 voicemail. “They are going to have to see a motherf***king psychiatrist...We will surround the motherf***ing White House and we will kill any motherf***ing Democrat that steps on the motherf***ing lawn. Democrats are f***ing terrorists. They are baby killers, gun grabbers, God hating....f***king cheaters."
The voicemail was played in court.
According to the charges, Capriotti falsely claimed to be an active-duty Marine when he left that voicemail message for a U.S. House member from New Jersey.
Prosecutors said a similar message was left for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Capriotti’s attorney claimed he had no real plan to act on his threat, but Judge Gabriel Fuentes rejected that argument, saying "threats hurt people. They terrorize people. They make people afraid. There’s an argument to be made that’s what they’re intended to do in the first place.”
According to the Tribune, the judge also said it was “very, very concerning” that Capriotti had continued to make telephonic threats of violence to members of Congress even after the FBI approached him a year ago and warned he could face criminal charges.
“(The FBI) explicitly discussed some of these calls and told him that this conduct had to stop, and then he didn’t stop,” Fuentes said. “It continued and it escalated.”
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The charges also state Capriotti called several members of Congress between October 2019 and January 2020, leaving “disturbing, anonymous messages on the voicemail systems.”
According to CBS 2, court documents state the messages “in almost every instance, included profanity, along with derogatory remarks concerning the race, religion, political affiliation, or physical appearance of certain Members and others.”