Utah man charged with threatening members of Congress, made more than 2,000 phone calls
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Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN
(CNN) — A Utah man has been arrested for allegedly threatening several members of Congress, making more than 2,000 phone calls to Capitol Hill, according to court documents.
The criminal complaint says Scott Brian Haven, 54, started making the calls in 2017 and most recently phoned in threats to lawmakers last month.
In a call on May 23 to the office of one member of Congress, Haven allegedly said he was “going to shoot him in the head. I’m going to do it now, are you ready?”
The complaint said that in a call on May 17, 2018, to an unnamed senator’s office, the caller was “extremely agitated” and stated that he would like to slice the heads off two senators.
In another call to a senator, Haven was yelling about “Democrats trying to destroy Trump’s presidency,” according to the complaint.
In November 2018, the FBI interviewed Haven outside his house in Kaysville, Utah, where he said the calls were “just meaningless threats that were made out of frustration” and that he would stop calling Congress, the complaint noted.
But, by late January, the threatening calls allegedly started again.
During a call on May 15 to another unnamed member of Congress, Haven was talking about illegal immigration and sanctuary cities and threatened that if the member didn’t do something to stop it, he would “blow the head off” the lawmaker, according to the complaint.
On May 23, in a call to yet another member of Congress, “The caller stated that he ‘was standing right behind him [Representative 5] and was going to take him out, because the Russians want him taken out, because he is trying to remove a duly elected President,” the complaint said. “The caller also stated ‘I’m at his office; I’m right behind him now. I’m going to shoot him in the head. I’m going to do it now, are you ready?'”
Capitol Police obtained phone records that show “the extreme volume of calls Haven makes to the Capitol switchboard.”
The court document says that during a five-and-a-half month period in 2018, there were 1,499 calls from his cell phone to Congress. Last month, he made another 850 calls.
Haven is set to be arraigned on June 13. Robert Steele, the assistant federal public defender currently assigned to represent Haven, declined to comment, except to say he expects Haven to retain private counsel in advance of the arraignment.
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