Columbia Man Facing Federal Charges For Making Online Threats To Blow Up IRS Headquarters, Shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Columbia man is facing federal charges of making online threats to blow up the IRS Headquarters building and shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Cody Wolf Gideon Mohr, 27, allegedly posted threats on social media threatening to destroy the building using explosives.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, officials conducted a routine review of social media accounts on Tuesday to identify and prevent threats to the IRS.
Those officials found tweets from "@BonaFried," in which the user threatened the IRS and federal employees, including political officials and law enforcement officers.
One of the tweets dated January 15, reportedly read:
"I am going to explode the IRS headquarters with a bomb." Additional tweets on or around the same date made reference to the original tweet and allegedly confirmed the user's intent to bomb the IRS, but said that "I am simply announcing my intentions to give employees a fair shot at escaping alive."
The user posted other tweets since then, allegedly making additional threats, including that he was "laser-focused on thinking about ways to kill [Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi," "[it would be cool to] drive 80 mph into a million people," and that "…if a cop pulls you over for something minor like speeding or a busted tail light, you can just threaten his life and he'll let you go with no trouble."
The user also allegedly discussed how easy it was to build a semi-automatic rifle and discussed obtaining firearms.
Officials later identified the user of the account as Mohr and that the IP addresses used during recent logins to the account were located in the area in or around Columbia.
WJZ spoke to one of Mohr's neighbors.
"It's crazy. I live right next to him and he's making those kinds of threats," they said. "You don't know what your neighbor does. It's crazy."
"It doesn't put me at ease that there are people out here actually thinking of harming people," another neighbor said.
If convicted, Mohr faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for making Internet threats to destroy a federal building by use of explosives.