FILE – In this photo March 22, 2013 file photo, the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington. Politicians love trying to use the tax code to highlight their goals to voters. This year, it’s a battlefield between Hillary Clinton, who wants to boost levies on the rich to pay for expanding social programs and Donald Trump, who says cutting taxes would gird the economy. The clash has consequences for the rich, poor and those in the middle. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
A Maryland man was arrested and accused of threatening to blow up a federal building and kill elected officials, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said.
A press release from the agency said Cody Wolf Gideon Mohr, 27, of Columbia, was charged Wednesday with making internet threats to destroy a building by use of explosive.
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A “routine review” of social media accounts conducted to identify threats against the Internal Revenue Service uncovered several tweets from an account that linked back to Mohr, the release said.
According to the criminal complaint, a Jan. 15 tweet from Mohr threatened “to explode” the IRS headquarters. Mohr later said he was giving “employees a fair shot at escaping alive,” the release said. IRS headquarters is in Washington D.C.
Mohr tweeted additional threats aimed at police officers and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
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“We take threats to bomb a federal building and injure federal employees seriously. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners will use all the tools at our disposal to identify and prosecute those who make such threats,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur said.
Some of the threats posted online extended to police officers and civilians, prosecutors said.
Mohr allegedly posted about driving "80 mph into a million people" and said threatening the life of an officer during a traffic stop could get someone out of trouble.
Mohr faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted. It’s unclear whether he had an attorney who would comment on his behalf.
