Wyoming Man Convicted of Making a Threat Against the President

United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that Timothy Cessor, age 27, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was convicted on July 29, 2020 of making a threat against the President of the United States following a three-day jury trial in federal court, in Omaha, Nebraska.  United States District Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. scheduled the sentencing for October 23, 2020. Cessor faces up to five years’ imprisonment.

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.