Security worker threatened to ‘blow all the Democrats up’ at campaign office, feds say

“This incident was a targeted effort to disturb the peace and disrupt the democratic process.” — U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary

A woman working as a security contractor said she would plant a bomb and “blow all the Democrats up” at a Democratic campaign office in Georgia, federal prosecutors said.

Jessica Diane Higginbotham, 35, a Democratic Senatorial Committee Campaign security contractor, threatened the campaign’s headquarters in Athens-Clarke County while U.S. senators from Georgia were visiting Athens in December, according to officials.

“Be ready to be blown up,” Higginbotham wrote in a text sent to a campaign employee at the headquarters the evening of Dec. 3, days before the U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia on Dec. 6, prosecutors said.

The next day, FBI agents found Higginbotham sitting at a coffee shop on her phone, and she vomited upon seeing them, according to officials.

Higginbotham, of Elberton, pleaded guilty to one count of communicating a bomb threat on May 16, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia announced in a news release.

“The bomb threat was leveled by an employee for a political organization days before a federal election in Georgia; this incident was a targeted effort to disturb the peace and disrupt the democratic process,” U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary said in a statement.

Higginbotham initially pleaded not guilty in January, according to court records, but changed her plea at the May 16 hearing.

McClatchy News contacted her attorneys for comment on May 17 and didn’t immediately receive a response.

Higginbotham is accused of sending the bomb threat through TextNow, an app she had downloaded on her cellphone that provides users a phone number and allows them to make texts and calls, according to an indictment.

The full threat sent to the campaign employee on Dec. 3, according to prosecutors, said:

“Hello, I am writing this message to you to let you know that I am coming by either tonight or in the morning to set a bomb up. So I can blow all the Democrats up. I have other people going to other offices also. If I can’t stop you by breaking in and destroying the property then I will blow every one up. So be ready to be blown up. This is going to either happen tonight or in the morning. Hope you like being on the wrong team.”

The FBI and U.S. Capitol police began investigating and ultimately traced the threat back to Higginbotham’s phone, according to prosecutors.

When FBI agents found her at the coffee shop in Athens, she initially denied sending the bomb threat, officials said.

She has since said she used her phone to “willfully threaten to kill or injure people and unlawfully destroy a building with an explosive,” according to prosecutors.

Higginbotham’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 7, the release said. She could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

Elberton is about 105 miles northeast of Atlanta.

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