An Alabama man who admitted he phoned in threats to Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutor Fani Willis over her prosecution of former President Donald Trump has been sentenced to prison.
Arthur Ray Hanson II, a 58-year-old insurance salesman from Huntsville, was sentenced Tuesday to one year and nine months in federal prison, prosecutors said. He was also ordered to pay a $7,500 fine.
Hanson pleaded guilty in July to a count of transmitting interstate threats. At the time, he told federal magistrate judge Regina Cannon, "I made a stupid phone call. I’m not a violent person."
He went on to say: "I didn’t knowingly know I was threatening anybody" and realized what he'd done when FBI agents showed up at his house. He said he acted out of anger but insisted “I’m not a lawbreaker. I just lost it.”
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Hanson called the Fulton County government customer service line in August 2023 and left voicemail threats for Sheriff Patrick Labat and Willis.
In his message for Sheriff Labat, Hanson said:
- “If you think you gonna take a mugshot of my President Trump and it’s gonna be okay, you gonna find out that after you take that mugshot, some bad [expletive]’s gonna happen to you.”
- “If you take a mugshot of the President and you’re the reason it happened, some bad [expletive]’s gonna happen to you.”
- “I’m warning you right now before you [expletive] up your life and get hurt real bad.”
- “Whether you got a [expletive] badge or not ain’t gonna help you none.”
- “You gonna get [expletive]ed up you keep [expletive]ing with my President.”
In Hanson’s message for Willis, he said:
- “Watch it when you’re going to the car at night, when you’re going into your house, watch everywhere that you’re going;”
- “I would be very afraid if I were you because you can’t be around people all the time that are going to protect you;”
- “There’s gonna be moments when you’re gonna be vulnerable;”
- “When you charge Trump on that fourth indictment, anytime you’re alone, be looking over your shoulder”
- “What you put out there, [expletive], comes back at you ten times harder, and don’t ever forget it.”
Willis' election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants has significantly stalled and will not head to trial this year.
A state appeals court halted proceedings in the case until a panel of judges rules on whether Willis should be disqualified in the case over a romantic relationship she had with a lawyer she chose to help lead the prosecution.
