Illinois man gets 3+ years for threat at Biden inaugural

CHICAGO (ASSOCIATED PRESS AND WEEK) - A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for threatening members of Congress and to commit violence at the 2021 presidential inauguration.

U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman sentenced Louis Capriotti, 47, of Chicago Heights to 37 months in prison Tuesday.

Capriotti pleaded guilty last fall to transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. He has been in federal custody since his Jan. 12, 2021, arrest.

Capriotti in November and December 2020 left threatening messages on the voicemail systems of members of Congress during which he falsely stated that he was an active U.S. Marine and referred to certain members of Congress as “terrorists,” federal prosecutors said in a news release.

In a Dec. 29, 2020 voicemail for a U.S. House member, Capriotti stated that if certain individuals “think that Joe Biden is going to put his hand on the Bible and walk into that [expletive] White House on January 20th, they’re sadly [expletive] mistaken,” the news release said.

Capriotti further stated in the voicemail, “We will surround the [expletive] White House and we will kill any [expletive] Democrat that steps on the [expletive] lawn,” prosecutors also said.

Capriotti has been in custody since his arrest in January of last year, and prosecutors said he’ll receive credit for time he’s already served behind bars.