A New Mexico man and QAnon believer recently pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a Texas congresswoman because he believed that she was transgender.
Earlier this month, Michael David Fox entered a guilty plea for interstate transmission of threatening communications after he was arrested by federal agents in May for a call he made to a Texas representative, threatening to kill her. Fox said his belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory prompted the call.
According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Newsweek, Fox made a call on May 18 to "the office of a congresswoman for the District of Texas, United States House of Representatives ('V1"), who is from Houston, Texas." The congresswoman was not identified in the complaint.
In the call, Fox accused the representative of being transgender saying "Hey [V1], you're a man. It's official. You're literally a tranny and a pedophile, and I'm going to put a bullet in your f****** face. You mother f****** satanic c*** sucking son of a w****. You understand me you f*****?"
Over the past several months, LGBTQ+ and transgender rights have remained topics of discussion in the U.S. as many states have sought to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors. In March, a KFF/Washington Post poll found that 25 percent of transgender adults say they have been physically attacked over their gender identity or sexual orientation. The poll also found that 64 percent of transgender adults say they've been verbally attacked for their sexual orientation.
Newsweek reached out to Fox's lawyer and the U.S. Department of Justice in New Mexico via email for comment.
The complaint states that FBI agents were able to trace the call made by Fox to a residence in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Upon arriving at the residence, Fox agreed to speak with the FBI agents and admitted to making the call and threatening to kill the Texas congresswoman.
"That's me," Fox said to the agents after they played him a recording of the call. Fox also acknowledged the threat he made was "direct" but told the FBI agents that he didn't own any guns.
According to the complaint, Fox told the FBI agents that he was a believer in the Q or QAnon movement and "explained these movements believe all over the world there were transgender individuals running governments, kingdoms, and corporations."
"Fox claimed that he believed Q was going to engage in the 'eradication' of the people who were causing all the world's misery. Fox believed that part of the eradication had already happened," the complaint said. "Fox explained that he had run Vl's skull features through forensic analysis and determined that V1 was born male and is now transgender."
"Fox continued to reiterate several different types of conspiracy theories indicating extreme far right ideologies as his explanation for why he conducted the phone call to threaten V1," the complaint added.
The complaint said that Fox eventually rescinded his threat and apologized, acknowledging that anyone he knew or cared about would be concerned by the contents of the call.
In August, Fox filed a document announcing his plan to enter a not-guilty plea, and on September 20, the indictment was waived. He has been charged with interstate transmission of threatening communications.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
