Former VOA employee charged for threats to Rep. Greene made from agency offices

A former longtime employee of Voice of America (VOA) has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly making repeated threats to kill U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, her staff, and their family members, according to prosecutors.

Seth Jason, of Edgewater, Maryland, was arrested Thursday morning by U.S. Capitol Police and the Anne Arundel County Police Department. He is scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge in federal court later today.

According to the indictment, Jason placed threatening phone calls between October 11, 2023, and January 21, 2025, to Rep. Greene’s district offices in Dalton and Rome, Georgia. An investigation revealed that the calls originated from multiple phone lines connected to studios and control rooms at Voice of America headquarters, where Jason had been employed.

Prosecutors allege that in at least eight calls over a fifteen-month period, Jason threatened to use firearms to kill the congresswoman, her staff, and their families.

He has been charged with influencing a federal official by threatening a family member, influencing a federal official by threat, interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and anonymous telecommunications harassment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

If convicted, Jason faces up to 10 years in prison for each count of threatening a federal official or a family member, five years for interstate threats, and two years for anonymous telecommunications harassment.

Last month, the Trump administration—through senior adviser Kari Lake—carried out sweeping layoffs at VOA, terminating approximately 639 employees, or about 85% of the workforce. The move followed a March executive order to dismantle VOA and its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).