An Ohio man has been indicted on charges he threatened to kill Vice President JD Vance during an appearance last month in Toledo. Federal prosecutors said 33-year-old Shannon Mathre of Toledo threatened to shoot Vance during the vice president's Jan. 22 visit to a shipping business. Secret Service agents arrested Mathre on Friday, when the indictment was unsealed, USA Today reports. He's charged with making threats against the president and successors to the presidency, plus receipt and distribution of child pornography. Mathre pleaded not guilty in federal court in Toledo and is being held at least until a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
His attorney, Neil McElroy, called the threat charge a "farce" and suggested it serves to reinforce a political narrative about violence against Trump administration officials; he did not comment on the pornography count. Prosecutors say Mathre faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the threat charge, and up to 20 years and another $250,000 fine on the child pornography charge. The indictment accuses Mathre of saying he intended "to find out where he (the vice president) is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him," per the Hill. Vance is a former US senator from Ohio.