Alabama man sentenced to more than 1 year for threats over Trump mug shot

An Alabama man was sentenced Tuesday to one year and nine months in prison for threatening a sheriff and a district attorney in Georgia over the jail mug shot of former President Donald Trump, prosecutors said.

Arthur Ray Hanson II, 59, of Huntsville, made the threats in voicemails to the Fulton County sheriff and district attorney after Trump was famously booked into jail on state charges in August 2023.

“If you think you gonna take a mugshot of my President Trump and it’s gonna be okay, you gonna find out that after you take that mugshot, some bad [expletive]’s gonna happen to you,” Hanson said in a threat to Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said.

Hanson also threatened District Attorney Fani Willis, saying that if Trump was indicted, “anytime you’re alone, be looking over your shoulder.” Hanson also threatened, “I would be very afraid if I were you because you can’t be around people all the time that are going to protect you,” officials said.

Hanson made the threats in two voicemails left for Labat and Willis on Aug. 6, 2023, before Trump was indicted or his mug shot was taken.

“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, but also a threat against our democratic process,” Sean Burke, the acting special agent in charge of FBI’s Atlanta office, said in a statement Tuesday.

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 other people last year on state charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, an election that Trump lost.

Trump was indicted on Aug. 14, 2023, and 10 days later, he surrendered to the Fulton County Jail and his mug shot was released publicly. The scowling image has been used by both opponents and supporters. Trump himself posted it to X in a fundraising attempt.

Hanson pleaded guilty in July to one count of transmitting interstate threats.

In addition to the threats, Hanson used racial slurs in the voicemails to Labat and Willis, both of whom are Black, and said at one point that the matter “is why the South should have won,” according to court documents.

In addition to the prison sentence, Hanson will be on supervised release for three years, and he was ordered to pay a $7,500 fine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

An attorney listed as representing Hanson did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment Tuesday evening.

Hanson’s attorney argued in a court filing ahead of sentencing that Hanson is a hard-working insurance broker who has accepted responsibility for his actions. He made the two calls within minutes of each other while he was intoxicated, and he also has bipolar disorder, his attorney wrote.

Prosecutors wrote in their sentencing filing that Hanson’s threatening calls to Labat and Willis were not the only ones he made.

After those voicemails, the FBI contacted him and told him to stop making threatening calls, and Hanson agreed, prosecutors wrote.

A month later, they said in the filing, Hanson called a New Jersey Department of Homeland Security tip line and said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be hanged.