KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A southwest Missouri man has been indicted for threatening to murder two members of the U.S. House, including Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, according to federal prosecutors.
The three-count indictment charging Kenneth R. Hubert, 63, of Marionville, alleges he threatened to assault and kill Cleaver, a Democrat who represents Kansas City, on Jan. 7 with the "intent to impede, intimidate and interfere" with Cleaver's official duties, according to a Department of Justice news release.
The alleged threat came a day after the riot at the U.S. Capitol, where a violent mob breached the building with the intent to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
In an interview after the indictment was announced, Cleaver said he could only tell The Star what the FBI has told him.
"The director of the field office in Kansas City called me a couple hours ago and told me his agents had just arrested someone for threats on me," he said, "and that their office was being very vigilant in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 uprising."
The indictment, which was unsealed Wednesday, also alleges that Hubert on May 6, 2019, threatened to kill Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee. He allegedly threatened to injure Cohen when he called his Washington, D.C., office, according to prosecutors.
Cleaver does not know Hubert personally and said he first learned about the threat last week from Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat. He immediately informed his staff and his family about the threat.
"I didn't even know that this guy had made a threat. It was completely news to me when Steve Cohen told me," Cleaver said.
Cleaver said he knew very few details about the case and that the FBI has been investigating Hubert for some time, but given the timing of the alleged threat Cleaver inferred that the motives were related to the attack on the Capitol that took place the day before.
The attack was preceded by weeks of conspiracy mongering, mainly false claims of widespread election fraud, by former President Donald Trump.
"There is right now a small segment of our country that is frustrated by what they are seeing as some kind of a takeover by the other. And they're being fed a bowl of lies every morning for breakfast," Cleaver said.
The congressman previously told The Star that his church had to disconnect its phone lines in January, just days before Hubert's alleged threat, after Donald Trump Jr. made repeated derogatory references to Cleaver on social media and at a Georgia campaign event.
"We get a lot of phone calls, N words, the threats about all kind of things," said Cleaver, who was the first Black mayor of Kansas City.
Cleaver said he had complimented FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, on bureau's response to the Capitol attack. The bureau has made hundreds of arrests in the wake of the Capitol riot, including nine in Missouri. Cleaver was unaware at the time of the conversation that the FBI was looking into a threat against him.
"He hasn't tried to protect or hurt anyone," Cleaver said of Wray. "He's just following the law and I think that's what's happening here."
Cleaver has faced threats of violence before in his long political career. In 2014, a man tried to firebomb Cleaver's Kansas City office. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in 2016.
"My colleagues are becoming concerned. There's a guy in a supermax prison in Colorado right now who attempted to bomb my office in Kansas City," Cleaver said.
However, Cleaver said that he is trying to focus on his legislative agenda rather than threats.
"Nobody likes to be threatened and it certainly doesn't allow you to feel good," he said. "I do take threats very seriously, but I'm primarily focused on creative housing programs."
Hubert, who was charged by a federal grand jury in Springfield, is in custody pending a detention hearing Monday.
The Star was unable to reach an attorney for Hubert, who was appointed a federal public defender. As a matter of policy, the public defender's office does not comment on pending cases.
In addition to the FBI, the case was investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police, the Independence Police Department and the Marionville-Aurora Police Department, according to prosecutors.
