Florida man sentenced to 14 months in prison for threatening to kill Chief Justice John Roberts
By Devan Cole, CNN
(CNN) — A Florida man was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison for threatening to kill Chief Justice John Roberts last year.
Neal Brij Sidhwaney, 43, of Fernandina Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty in December to transmitting an interstate threat to kill. He had faced up to five years in federal prison. Sidhwaney was also sentenced to three years of supervised release following his imprisonment.
CNN previously reported that Sidhwaney called the Supreme Court last year on July 31 “and left an expletive-laden, threatening voicemail message” for a member of the high court, according to a Justice Department news release.
The department did not identify which justice was the target of the threatening phone call, but online court documents revealed the threat was made against Roberts.
“The identified official is Chief Justice John Roberts whom he allegedly contacted by phone call and threatened to kill,” according to a competency assessment of Sidhwaney previously filed online with a federal court in Florida.
CNN has reached out to Sidhwaney’s attorney for comment.
In a separate case, a California man charged with attempting to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh has pleaded not guilty. Law enforcement arrested Nicholas Roske in 2022 near Kavanaugh’s home outside of Washington, DC, with a bag containing a gun and burglary tools
His attorneys have said in recent court filings that they are in talks with prosecutors “regarding a pretrial resolution.”
CNN’s Mary Kay Mallonee and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
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