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Illinois man to be sentenced for threatening Arizona senator

Gavel shot
Posted at 11:50 AM, Aug 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-19 14:50:53-04

PHOENIX (AP) - Sentencing is scheduled Monday for a Chicago man for leaving a threatening voicemail for a U.S. senator from Arizona during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings.

The guilty plea that James Dean Blevins previously made to a federal retaliation charge in Phoenix calls for him to serve a sentence of probation.

Authorities say Blevins threatened an official identified only as "United States Senator J.F."

They have declined to provide the victim's full name, but then-Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona was the only senator with those initials.

Flake had said in late September that his family received death threats after he asked a Senate committee to hear testimony from a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

Flake ultimately voted for Kavanaugh's nomination.