SCRANTON, PA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Robert Lee Ingalls, Jr., 61, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, has been charged with interstate transmission of threatening communications.
United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam stated that on November 6, 2023, Ingalls allegedly left two voicemail messages on the main congressional office answering system in Washington, D.C., wherein he specifically threatened to kill a United States Congressman. The calls were traced back to Ingalls’s cell phone, which he used while in Mechanicsburg.
Ingalls was arrested on November 10, 2023, and subsequently appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Daryl F. Bloom on November 13, 2023. He was ordered to be held in pretrial detention pending further action by a federal grand jury.
The investigation was conducted by the United States Capitol Police, with assistance from the Fairview Township Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney William Behe.
If convicted, Ingalls faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. The actual sentence would be determined by the Judge based on the federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.