An Ohio man has been charged with threatening to kill Vice President JD Vance and with receiving and distributing child sexual abuse material, which was uncovered during the threat investigation.
According to the Justice Department, Shannon Mathre, 33, was arrested Friday by Secret Service agents after he was indicted by a grand jury.
Mathre allegedly stated, “I am going to find out where [Vance] is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him.”
From Dec. 31, 2025, to Jan. 21, 2026, the DOJ alleges, Mathre possessed and distributed the abuse material, which was uncovered while the agency investigated his alleged threats against Vance.
A U.S. Secret Service spokesman said “the investigation included not only what the defendant said online and to people, but also his actions and behavior. We have been following this for several months with our partners at the FBI and in Ohio.”
“As a society, we must remain united in our zero tolerance for political violence,” the spokesman said. “This individual will now answer for his actions to a federal court.”
“You can hide behind a screen, but you cannot hide from this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Friday.
Just days earlier, a Maryland man was charged with attempting to murder another Trump administration official, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought.
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Vance and Donald Trump have faced multiple threats since 2024, when the two ran on the Republican presidential ticket.
Last month, the Justice Department criminally charged a man who damaged Vance’s home in Ohio.
And in July 2024, just days after the attempted assassination of then-candidate Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, authorities in Florida arrested and charged a man who allegedly made social media threats against Trump and Vance.
Earlier this month, Ryan Routh, the man found guilty of attempting to assassinate Trump at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024, was sentenced to life in prison plus a mandatory additional seven years for a firearm offense.
@ NBC News
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