(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A Michigan man who made threats against President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others on the left-wing social media platform Bluesky has received two years in federal prison, the Justice Department said.
James Donald Vance Jr., 67, of Grand Rapids, pleaded guilty to two felonies: threatening to kill or injure the president and vice president, and interstate threatening communications, according to Monday’s DOJ press release.
“The advent of the internet gives us all an opportunity to engage in the healthy exchange of ideas that are so important to a democracy,” U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey said in a statement.
“But some would rather use this tool to threaten and intimidate, conduct that causes fear and damages our democratic ideals,” VerHey added. “When Vance said he planned to kill our President and the Vice President simply because he disagreed with them, he crossed a line we all understand and so had to be punished.”
James Vance, using the alias “diaperjdv,” also targeted Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk.
“If tRump, Vance, or Musk ever come to my city again, they will leave it in a body bag,” he reportedly wrote in an April 1 post, according to the New York Post.
“I will either be shot by a secret service sniper or spend the rest of my life in prison,” he added. “I’ve only got about 10 years of life left anyway so I don’t f**king care either way.”
While spending his final years in lock-down was not an issue, he was less receptive to the idea of a Don Jr. presidency.
“I will murder that stupid f**ker before he gets secret service protection,” he wrote on March 7.
A search for the account indicated that the account has since been removed.
There is no known relation between James Vance and the vice president, whose name is James David Vance. The Ohio native was born James Donald Bowman. However, he changed his middle and last name to cut ties with his biological father and honor his maternal grandparents, who raised him.
“Any old D name would have done, so long as it wasn’t Donald,” he recounted in his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy about adopting the new middle name following his parents’ divorce.
He formally changed his last name in April 2013, after graduating from Yale Law School.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
