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OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
1:02 PM – Saturday, February 7, 2026
A federal grand jury has indicted an Ohio man for threatening to kill Vice President JD Vance, but added charges of possessing child pornography, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ announced in a news release that 33-year-old Shannon Mathre of Toledo, Ohio, was arrested by U.S. Secret Service (USSS) agents on Friday on the accusation that he threatened to assassinate Vance when he visited Northwest Ohio in January.
According to the indictment, Mathre said, “I’m going to find out where he (the vice president) is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him.”
“Our attorneys are vigorously prosecuting this disgusting threat against Vice President Vance,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “You can hide behind a screen, but you cannot hide from this Department of Justice.”
“Hostile and violent threats made against the Vice President, or any other public official, will not be tolerated in our District,” David M. Toepfer, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio said. “Anyone threatening this kind of action will face swift justice and prosecution. We commend the actions of our local and state law enforcement who collaborated with U.S. Secret Service to take this individual into custody.”
While looking into the threat against the vice president’s life, however, Secret Service investigators uncovered “multiple digital files of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) in Mathre’s possession.”
“While arresting this man for allegedly threatening to murder the Vice President of the United States, a serious crime in and of itself, federal law enforcement discovered that he was also in possession of child sexual abuse materials,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated. “Thank you to federal, state and local partners in working together to bring justice twofold to this depraved individual.”
If found guilty of threatening the life of a vice president, Mathre faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum statutory fine of $250,000. If convicted of the possession and distribution of CSAM, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a maximum statutory fine of $250,000.
Mathre made his first court appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Ohio on Friday, where he pleaded guilty to both counts. He will remain in custody awaiting his detention hearing on Wednesday.
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