A McLean man is facing federal prosecution after allegedly threatening a federal employee via a Google Voice text message.
The Justice Department charged Scott Allen Bolger, 33, last Friday (Dec. 26) with sending threats across state lines and making false statements when questioned by investigators, according to a press release and court documents.
“Threats of violence are serious crimes with serious consequences,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan said in the release. “Those who target federal employees should know that we will investigate and prosecute these offenses to the fullest extent of the law.”
According to an affidavit, a federal government worker identified only as “Victim-1” received a text message on Dec. 23 telling them to “step on U Street and get a bullet put between your eyes, loyalist pig skin pussy[.]”
The affidavit says the federal employee was outside Virginia when they received the text, but the reference to U Street suggests they might’ve been in D.C., where federal agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and other agencies have had a heavy presence since this summer.
In response to the threat, the FBI requested data on the phone number that sent it from Google and received a recovery number that investigators traced to Bolger “based on information in a law enforcement database,” an ICE deportation officer assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force said in the affidavit.
When the ICE officer and another FBI task force member went to Bolger’s McLean apartment on Dec. 24, they encountered a man who identified himself as “Brian Black” and “denied that anyone named Scott Bolger lived at” the address.
“After confirming with an employee of the apartment building that BOLGER lived in Address 1, the other FBI [task force officer] and I, along with members of Fairfax County Police Department (“FCPD”), returned to Adress [sic] 1 and knocked on the door of Address 1,” the ICE officer said in the affidavit. “The individual who first identified himself as ‘Brian Black’ came out of the apartment and admitted that he was, in fact, Scott Allen BOLGER.”
According to the affidavit, Bolger allegedly admitted during a “voluntary” interview in the conference room of the apartment building’s leasing office that he had looked up the federal employee’s phone number online and called to ensure the number was correct before sending the text using a Google Voice account.
If Bolger is convicted on the two charges, he could face up to five years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
A public defender listed as Bolger’s representative said he had no comment.
Bolger is scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in Alexandria at 2 p.m. today for a detention hearing to determine whether he should remain in custody as the case proceeds, per court documents.
