A 67-year-old Michigan man who vowed online to assassinate President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance if they returned to his city has been sentenced to prison for his violent threats on social media.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney ordered James Donald Vance Jr. — who is not related to Vice President James David “JD” Vance — to serve two years in a federal correctional facility, authorities said.
In July, James Vance pleaded guilty to one count of threatening to kill or injure the president and vice president of the United States and one count of sending an interstate threatening communication. He entered an open plea, meaning there was no agreement with prosecutors about what sentence he would receive.
“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,” United States 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. 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.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Vance posted his threats on the social media platform Bluesky.
According to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Vance “knowingly and willfully” threatened “to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President and Vice President of the United States.”
Prosecutors said Vance wrote the first post on April 1 under the username “Diaperjdv”:
“If tRump, Vance, or Musk ever come to my city again, they will leave it in a body bag. I will either be shot by a secret service sniper or spend the rest of my life in prison. I’ve only got about 10 years of life left anyway so I don’t f—ing care either way.”
The charge of threatening to kill the president carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The threatening communication charge tied to that post alleges that by writing the comment on Bluesky, Vance was “consciously disregarding a substantial risk that his communication would be viewed as threatening violence against other persons.”
A second threatening communication charge stemmed from a March 7 post, in which Vance allegedly responded to another user’s post titled “Donald Trump Jr. Considering a Run for President in 2028.”
In that reply, Vance wrote, “I will murder that stupid f—er before he gets secret service protection,” according to the indictment.
Vance is the second person in the Western District of Michigan in the last two months to receive a prison sentence for threatening to kill Donald Trump. On Oct. 20, U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering sentenced Richard James Spring to 18 months in prison and imposed a $2,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to one count of making threats to kill and injure the president.
In one of the social media posts cited in a recent sentencing memo, Spring wrote, “i promise I will make SURE he is assassinated before his first f—ing year.”
