Charles Alan Wilson, the 63-year-old charged with making a series of death threats against Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), appears to have attended a tea party protest outside a Murray speaking event in Yakima, Washington, less than a week ago — in the midst of the period when Wilson made the alleged death threats.
Wilson, who the FBI says had a concealed weapon permit and a .38 that he bragged about carrying, allegedly said in a phone message he left at Murray’s office April 4 that he was at an event in Yakima “waiting for” Murray the week before.
On April 1, the previous Thursday, over 100 tea party protesters rallied outside a Murray appearance at the Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce, according to a report in the Yakima Herald-Republic.
In the April 4 message, Wilson allegedly said:
“Oh, you were in Yakima last week. How come you didn’t give a big speech to the people outside waiting to see you? Yeah, we were outside waiting for you, hopefully you would come out and explain to us how come this health-care bill that you rallied on so highly is going to create the biggest drain in American history.”
Later in the same message he rains profanity-filled insults on Murray and wishes her “the f**king pain I am going through.”
The April 1 protest was organized by Remember Us, We the People, a Yakima group affiliated with the Tea Party Patriots that is dedicated to “[stopping] excessive government spending and taxation.” A photo from the protest shows a woman holding a “NO OBAMA CARE” sign.
An organizer for Remember Us told the Herald-Republic that Wilson is not on the group’s membership lists and that Remember Us supports respectful protest.
Wilson, for his part, went out of his way in one alleged message to Murray to declare that he does not identify as a tea partier. “I hope somebody takes your f**king fat ass f**king out, I really do. And it’s just my belief. I’m not a tea party bagger. I’m an independent U.S. voter. I’m neither Republican nor Democrat. I hope you f**king die,” he said, the complaint alleges.
In another alleged message, he says: “We, the people, will not subside, succumb to socialism.”
In a separate development, the FBI has explained why one of its agents posed as the representative of a real pro-repeal group, Patients United Now, when trying to identify Wilson as the person calling Murray. (As it happens, the FBI’s call to Wilson was on April 1, the same day as the Yakima protest.)
The Seattle Times spoke with Special Agent Fred Gutt:
He said the agents needed to talk to Wilson to verify his identity, and they wanted a ruse to get him to the phone. They found Patients United Now on the Web, and called the contact number to ask permission. However, the number was disconnected.
“They presumed the organization was defunct,” Gutt said. “It wasn’t.
The number was still defunct when TPM called it yesterday. But Patients United’s parent group, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation said in a statement yesterday:
“The FBI did not contact AFP Foundation about this matter. Over the last year, we have been one of the leading grassroots organizations opposing a Washington takeover of our health care. Perhaps that is why they chose to use our name, though they did not notify us.”
Late Update: Dave Weigel digs up the video from the April 1 Yakima protest:
