St. Paul Man Charged In Threat To U.S. Representative

SAINT PAUL, MN — A St. Paul man is accused of leaving a voicemail threatening violence against a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, police said.

Jason R. Karimi, 32, was charged in federal court Friday with interstate communication of a threat. The maximum sentence for someone convicted of the crime is 20 years in prison.

U.S. Capitol police on Jan. 11 listened to a voicemail left at the office of a U.S. representative earlier that day. Federal authorities did not identify the House member but said the message contained "graphic threats of violence," according to a criminal complaint.

"Your house being vandalized, that was quite unfortunate, but it wasn’t far enough. So we’re going to end all political power and make it so you can’t even walk in anything but a wheelchair," the message said, according to investigators.

The telephone number connected to the message was traced to Karimi, authorities said.

Federal agents met Karimi outside his apartment on Jan. 12, where he told them he worked as a lobbyist in the marijuana industry, and the voicemail was meant to cause "political pain" to the representative’s political career, investigators said.