A Houston man accused of threatening to assault and kill Congresswoman Maxine Waters was on April 13 arrested and charged in connection with the incidents. According to Click2Houston, court documents stated that 60-year-old Brian Michael Gaherty called the Black congresswoman’s California office to leave several threatening messages.
He is also accused of calling Waters’ office in 2022 and threatening to assault her as he spoke with one of her staff members. In one of the voice notes that he left, Gaherty allegedly threatened to “cut” Waters’ “black (expletive) throat.”
Court documents also stated that Gaherty called Waters’ office on November 16, 2022, and told a staff member: “Tell Congresswoman Maxine Waters when I see her on the street I’m going to bust her upside her head.”
The district director of Waters’ office notified the U.S. Capitol Police about the threatening call the next day and also gave them the recordings of the threatening voicemails he had left.
Agents with the USCP managed to track Gaherty down with assistance from T-Mobile, and were also able to establish Gaherty was using a TraceFone to make the threatening calls. The device in question is a prepaid, no-contract phone.
During questioning after the FBI tracked him down to his Houston home, court documents stated that Gaherty showed the agents a bag containing cell phones and claimed they “did not work”, per Click2Houston. It was also established a serial number for a TraceFone receipt that he showed to the agents matched one of the phones that were used to contact Waters’ office.
It was also established the Black congresswoman wasn’t the only person receiving threatening messages from Gaherty as investigations revealed he “has a history of sending racist, violent threats to other congresswomen.”
Court documents stated that another congresswoman received 10 threatening voicemails from Gaherty from September 2022 to February 2023. The accused man has been charged with transmission of a threat to injure the person of another interstate commerce. The bond for Gaherty after his arrest was set at $100,000, but court documents reportedly showed he posted the bond.
