OMAHA, Neb. (DOJ) – United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that Timothy Cessor, age 27, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was sentenced today in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for making a threat against the President. United States District Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Cessor to time served. Cessor has served 20 months in custody. After Cessor’s release from prison, he will begin a 3-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Cessor was convicted on July 29, 2020, following a three-day jury trial.
Evidence at trial established that on February 4, 2019, Cessor broke into his father’s gun safe in his home in Cheyenne, took a .40 caliber pistol and ammunition, and began driving east toward Washington, D.C., to kill the President of the United States. Cessor made a short cell phone video in which he declared that he “will not tolerate an incompetent white house.” Cessor set out to go to the White House to shoot the President. A few hours into the trip east, while Cessor was in Nebraska, he called his father and stated that he was going to “take care of Trump.” After speaking with his father, Cessor turned around and returned to Cheyenne and received treatment at a medical facility in Cheyenne. While at the medical facility, Cessor stated that he had begun driving to Washington to kill the President.
This case is part of the Department of Justice’s Project Guardian and Early Disruption initiatives. These initiatives seek to address threats to the public safety presented by individuals who would seek to acquire or use firearms to achieve violence and injure others. For more information about Project Guardian, please see https://www.justice.gov/projectguardian.
The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Cheyenne Police Department in Wyoming.
