Government Phones, Death Threats — Guess Who

Empty courthouse courtroom with wooden benches and chairs.

A government-funded media worker spent 15 months phoning in death threats to a conservative congresswoman — from inside a federal building — before finally landing in prison.

Story Snapshot

A former Voice of America employee made eight death-threat calls against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over 15 months.^[3]
He used federal phone lines inside Voice of America headquarters to threaten to kill Greene, her staff, and her family.^[3]
He pleaded guilty to two federal crimes and has now been sentenced to prison.^[1]^[3]
The case exposes how a taxpayer-funded outlet let a longtime employee weaponize government resources against a Trump-aligned lawmaker.

Threats From Inside a Taxpayer-Funded Newsroom

Federal prosecutors say sixty-four-year-old Seth Jason spent fifteen months phoning in threats to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district offices in Dalton and Rome, Georgia.^[3] Between October 11, 2023, and January 21, 2025, he made eight calls that grew more violent over time.^[3] Jason was not just any crank caller. He was a longtime studio worker at Voice of America, the government-funded broadcaster, and he placed every call from inside its Washington, D.C., headquarters using internal phone lines.^[1]^[3]^[6]

Court records show those calls were explicit death threats. In one voicemail, Jason said his “friends” wanted to go to a Greene rally with their AK-47 rifles and “take them out,” then talked about a shot “between the eyes.”^[1] In later messages, he warned Greene would not “see the inaugural” and said she, her staff, and her family would be dead.^[3]^[5] On January 21, 2025, he told her office they were “as good as dead” and to prepare a last will as he yearned to hear her “cry for your last breath.”^[1]^[3]^[5]

Guilty Plea, Prison Time, and What Was Dropped

The Department of Justice says Jason was first indicted on four counts, including threatening a federal official and threatening a federal official’s family.^[5]^[8] That indictment carried a potential maximum of ten years in prison.^[7]^[10] When the case moved forward, Jason struck a deal. He pleaded guilty to two charges: interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and anonymous telecommunications harassment.^[3]^[5] The other two counts were not resolved in court, which narrows what was formally proven even though the conduct was described in the plea.

After his guilty plea, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentenced Jason to a prison term of about two and a half years.^[1] That sentence sits below the combined seven-year maximum for the two counts but still sends a clear signal that threats against elected officials will be punished. The Justice Department’s sentencing announcement stressed that Jason used detailed language, firearms references, and repeated calls, which together showed more than a moment of anger.^[1]^[3] Even so, the public has not seen the actual audio, only written summaries of what he said.^[5]

What This Means for Conservatives, Free Speech, and Accountability

This case hits several nerves for conservative readers. The target was Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of former President Trump’s strongest allies in Congress, making her a lightning rod for left-wing anger. At the same time, the attacker worked inside Voice of America, a media arm funded by taxpayers that has long faced criticism for bias against America First voices.^[9] For fifteen months, a government media employee used government phones inside a government building to terrorize an elected conservative.

The broader pattern is alarming. United States Capitol Police say threats and “concerning statements” against members of Congress and their families have surged in recent years, with more than nine thousand cases in 2024 alone.^[17] Outside researchers also report sharp increases in harassment and threats aimed at public officials across party lines.^[16] Many of the most serious threats target conservatives, including President Trump himself, yet establishment outlets often spend more time scolding conservative speech than exposing violent rhetoric from the left.^[22]

Unanswered Questions for Voice of America and Washington

The facts create tough questions about oversight. Investigators traced Jason’s calls to multiple phone lines tied to studios and control rooms at Voice of America.^[3]^[6]^[8] That means the threats came from phones that should have been monitored and logged. Yet available reports show no detailed public explanation of how an employee managed to do this eight times over fifteen months without anyone inside the building stopping it.^[6]^[7] Voice of America has not faced any visible penalty or reform tied directly to this security failure.

For many conservatives, that silence fits a pattern: Washington institutions close ranks when one of their own crosses a line, especially if the target is a populist Republican. The Trump administration’s broader push to counter political violence has called for tougher investigations and penalties for threats meant to silence lawful political activity.^[21] Jason’s prison sentence is a step toward that standard. But until agencies like Voice of America are forced to answer for how their systems were abused, taxpayers and elected conservatives have every reason to demand deeper accountability and real safeguards.