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North Ga man charged with threatening US House Speaker

A Georgia man is one of at least 16 people facing federal charges in connection with Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cleveland Grover Meredith, originally of Hiawassee, has been charged with threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in text messages he sent after the attack. Federal charging documents show that he texted he was thinking about “putting a bullet in (Pelosi’s) noggin on live TV.”

Meredith also faces weapons charges after he texted a friend he was headed to Washington with armor-piercing ammo.

According to a report filed by federal agents, Meredith intended on attending the planned Trump protest on Jan. 6 but had car trouble on the way. Meredith headed to Washington anyway, where FBI agents found him at a hotel room on Jan. 7.

Meredith told agents he had two firearms in his vehicle. Agents found a Glock 19, nine-millimeter pistol, an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in a trailer attached to his truck. Meredith did not registration to have any firearms in Washington.

Meredith showed agents the string of text messages in which he made the threats. At one point, a family member told Meredith he was worried about him. Meredith said he was “just having fun” and that he had “been on the radar for a while and they now (sic) I am harmless.”

“I predict that within 12 days, many in our country will die,” he wrote in one text.

Meredith also admitted to agents he participated in a protest outside Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s home.

Meredith was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, possession of an unregistered firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition, according to court records.

On his LinkedIn profile, Meredith is listed as the co-owner of Car-Nutz Car Wash LLC in Smyrna.

In 2018, Meredith erected a billboard on Cobb Parkway in Acworth advertising the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to the AJC.

QAnon subscribers believe that there is a secret cabal of pedophiles within the government and Hollywood elites and that President Donald Trump is fighting a holy war against them.

Meredith told The AJC at the time that he had put up the QAnon billboard because he was “a patriot among the millions who love this country.”

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