As Cleveland G. Meredith Jr., a devoted follower of the radical QAnon ideology, drove toward the nation’s capital from Colorado on Jan. 6 with a cache of guns, 2,500 rounds of ammunition and high-capacity magazines, he repeatedly texted his family and friends ominous sentiments. One message said he was “gonna collect a … ton of Traitors heads.”
When a family member responded that President Donald Trump wanted him to go home, Meredith strongly disagreed and said: “he wants HEADS and I’m gonna deliver.” Meredith didn’t arrive in Washington until late that night, but the next day he informed his family that he was considering shooting both D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), twice texting that he was considering “putting a bullet in her [Pelosi’s] noggin on live TV.”
His family called the FBI. Meredith, 53, was arrested Jan. 7 in a D.C. hotel room and ordered held without bond. On Tuesday, after his sentencing range was increased by a judge for threatening a government official and showing intent to carry out his threats, he was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison.
Meredith’s attorney had asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to sentence Meredith to the 11 months he has already served and had expected his client to face a maximum of 21 months. Prosecutors had not sought a sentencing increase beyond a range of 18 to 24 months, but did not oppose it.
In a 50-minute analysis of Meredith’s case, Jackson pointedly read aloud every text message listed by prosecutors in a sentencing brief, many of them vulgar, to emphasize her view that “the level of discourse in this country has become so debased and degraded.” The judge said that Meredith truly was “strategizing on best way to assault this city,” as he wrote in one text on Jan. 7.
“It is not patriotism,” the judge told Meredith, “it is not standing up for America and it is not justified to descend on the nation’s capital at the direction of a disappointed candidate and threaten members of the other party. Canceling out the votes of others at the point of a gun is the utter antithesis of what America stands for, it is the definition of tyranny and authoritarianism.”
“I know what I did was wrong,” Meredith said. “It was political hyperbole that was too hyper. … I’m very embarrassed about the whole situation. It’s not who I am and it’s not who I want to be remembered as.”
Meredith, who lives in Hayesville, N.C., is divorced and drove to Colorado in late December 2020 to spend time with his ex-wife and two sons, according to his sentencing memo. He also brought the boxes of ammunition, a handgun and a rifle, along with some all-terrain vehicles, to practice with his kids, his lawyers said. Jackson noted that 1,000 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition, an assault rifle with a telescopic sight and high-capacity magazines were probably not needed for target practice with children.
Starting on Jan. 4, Meredith began driving toward Washington with his weapons and his ATVs, which he said in some texts he might need to break through to the U.S. Capitol. “We’re gonna surround DC and slowly constrict,” Meredith wrote.
His lawyer, Paul Kiyonaga, said that “in the QAnon world, [Meredith] found a sense of purpose.” QAnon is a sprawling set of false claims born online that have coalesced into an extremist ideology and radicalized its followers. In 2018, Meredith erected a billboard in Acworth, Ga., that read, “#QANON,” telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he was “a patriot among the millions who love this country.”
But Meredith’s truck broke down, and he did not reach the District until the evening of Jan. 6, by which time the Capitol had been cleared of rioters and the electoral vote count confirming Joe Biden’s election had resumed. While en route, he wrote, “3.5 hours until target practice.” A family member responded, “Please stop talking like that.”
The next day, Meredith sent texts such as, “I may wander over to the mayor’s office and put a 5.56 in her skull” and “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi … speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on live TV,” court records show. Later that afternoon, not far from the Capitol, he got into a fight with a passenger in a car, which had stopped in front of him, and was charged with assault. When he returned to his hotel in Southwest Washington and continued to text threats, which his lawyer noted were not sent to any of the targets, his family called the FBI.
In pleading guilty to one count of making felony threats, Meredith had expected his sentencing range might be six to 12 months, but possibly rise to 18 to 24 months if the judge found that Meredith had an actual intent to carry out his threats. Prosecutors said they supported a sentence in the middle of either of those ranges. But the presentencing report added a second enhancement, because Pelosi is a government official. That raised the possible sentencing range to 37 to 46 months. Kiyonaga argued against both increases, saying Meredith had not surveilled or done any planning, but Jackson found that both enhancements applied.
Giving Meredith credit for agreeing to seek mental health help, Jackson placed his sentence between the two recommended ranges.
“The words in this case are the offense,” Jackson said. “These types of statements cannot be shrugged off. They cannot be normalized by adding ‘LOL’ at the end.”
