The FBI has arrested a man from Georgia in Washington, DC, who was contemplating attempting to assassinate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The arrest came the night after the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
CBS News has learned that the agency considers the suspect mentally unstable.
CBS Atlanta’s affiliate, WGCL-TV, obtained a court document in which the FBI says it received advice the day after the attack that Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr. he had sent a text message saying, “Thinking of addressing Pelosi’s speech and putting a bullet on live television.”
In another text message quoted in the document, Meredith discusses the possibility of driving her truck onto the Capitol lawn and attempting to run over Pelosi.
He also predicted that in twelve days “many will die in our country.”
According to the document, officers learned he was staying at a DC Holiday Inn and interrogated him there the night after the Capitol attack. He gave officers permission to search the room, truck, trailer and cell phone.
The document says they found handguns, an assault rifle and “hundreds of rounds of ammunition.”
Meredith told officers she intended to participate in the rally at the Capitol, but arrived in DC too late due to car problems.
The FBI was looking for charges to threaten killing Pelsoi and illegal possession of firearms.
WGCL says Meredith had a car wash in Acworth, Georgia. The station says it would occasionally announce the Qanon conspiracy group as it advertised the business and sent tweets to Antifa to pick it up.
He sold the business in September 2019 and now has nothing to do with it, but that has not discouraged an angry public from pursuing the new owner.
“We’re getting constant phone calls from outraged customers not even, I mean they’re out of state, our scores are plummeting,” Jason Mathison told WCGL.
Jason said he was seeking help from Google to combat negative reviews, which could be devastating for his business.
Police in Hiawasse, Georgia, told WGCL Meredith that she moved to the area in December 2019 and that Meredith’s parents contacted them, concerned about her posts and her behavior on social media.
Hiawasse police chief Paul Smith also said that on June 5, 2020 Meredith attended a BLM demonstration. At the rally, he left his vehicle carrying a rifle. He was immediately approached by secret agents, who watched him until he left.
Police told WGCL he moved to Clay County, North Carolina, in September 2020.