QAnon supporter who threatened Pelosi has ties to Georgia and North Carolina, feds say

The FBI arrested a man with ties to Georgia and North Carolina after the federal bureau says he texted acquaintances about his plans to shoot Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Cleveland Grover Meredith was arrested at his Washington, D.C., hotel a day after last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to the FBI. He hoped to arrive in the nation’s capital on Jan. 5 but did not get there until a day later because of car trouble, feds say.

“Thinking about heading over to Pelosi’s... speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on live TV,” Meredith texted friends, according to the FBI.

He also bragged in text messages about having a “ton of 5.56 armor piercing ammo,” according to the FBI, and said he would run over Pelosi. FBI agents said they found numerous guns, including an assault rifle, and hundreds of rounds of ammo in Meredith’s trailer.

Meredith is originally from Georgia and previously owned a car wash in Acworth, near Atlanta, according to WGCL. In 2018, he put up a billboard near his business that read “#QANON,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

At the time, he told the newspaper he erected the billboard because he’s “a patriot among the millions who love this country.”

In December 2019, he moved to Hiawassee in northern Georgia, WGCL reported. After Meredith moved, his parents informed local police about his QAnon beliefs, according to WSB-TV.

The Lovett School in Atlanta, where Meredith graduated in 1986, banned Meredith from its campus starting in 2019 “due to threats of violence,” according to 11Alive. It’s unclear what the alleged threats against the school were.

Meredith attended a Black Lives Matter rally in Hiawassee last summer armed with a rifle as a counter protester, according to the Towns County Herald.

He bought a home in Hayesville in western North Carolina in August, according to the Citizen Times.

In his text messages last week, Meredith also predicted “that within 12 days, many in our country will die,” according to the FBI. He later claimed he was “jus havin’ fun,” according to text message transcripts from the FBI.

He was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, possession of an unregistered firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition, the complaint shows.

Meredith was among 13 people who were charged federally on Jan. 8 in relation to the riot at the Capitol, where a pro-Trump mob stormed Congress while members were in session voting to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Donald Trump. Vice President Mike Pence affirmed Biden’s victory after Congress certified the president-elect’s 306-232 margin over Trump, who has repeatedly made unfounded allegations of voter fraud.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 9:39 AM.