Illinois man to be sentenced for threatening Arizona senator

A Chicago man who pleaded guilty to a federal retaliation charge for leaving a threatening voicemail for a U.S. senator is expected to be sentenced Monday in Phoenix.

The guilty plea previously entered by 58-year-old James Dean Blevins calls for him to serve probation for threatening an official identified only as “United States Senator J.F.” during the confirmation hearing for then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Authorities have declined to provide the victim’s name, but then-Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona was the only senator with those initials. Flake later decided not to seek reelection.

In his plea deal, Blevins acknowledged that he left the threatening voicemail on Sept. 17 from his landline in Chicago to the senator’s office in Arizona.

“I am tired of him interrupting our president, and I am coming down there to take him and his family out,” the message said, according to court documents.

Flake has said his family received death threats after he asked a Senate committee to hear testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

Kavanaugh was confirmed following contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in which Ford said the nominee had sexually assaulted her while the two were teenagers living in Maryland.

Flake played a key role during the hearings when he requested an FBI investigation of the claims. He later voted for the nomination.

In a separate case, Ronald Derisi of Smithtown, New York, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening to kill two U.S. senators who supported Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Officials had declined to name two the senators.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa identified himself as one of the victims. And the staff of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also confirmed that she received threatening messages.