A longtime employee at Voice of America (VOA) has been federally indicted for allegedly making violent threats, including threats to kill Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), her staff, and their families, using government phones at VOA’s Washington, DC, headquarters over a span of 15 months.
Seth Jason, a Voice of America employee, was arrested early Thursday morning and charged in a four-count federal indictment unsealed in Washington, DC, for reportedly issuing a series of violent threats, including threats to kill Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her staff, using phone lines located in VOA’s studios and control rooms.
The indictment accuses Jason of placing eight anonymous, threatening calls to Greene’s congressional district offices in Georgia between October 2023 and January 2025. Prosecutors allege Jason threatened to use firearms to kill Greene, her staff, and their families and to kidnap a family member using taxpayer-funded phones at the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Voice of America studios.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan announced the charges Thursday, which include two counts of influencing a federal official, one for threatening a family member and another for making a direct threat, as well as interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and anonymous telecommunications harassment. Jason faces a maximum of 27 years in prison if convicted on all counts, according to statutory sentencing guidelines.
According to court filings, Jason’s final call was placed on January 21, 2025 — just one day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Kari Lake, who serves as Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, described the threats as “sickening” and applauded Pirro for pursuing accountability.
“It angers me that a taxpayer-funded VOA employee would use taxpayer-funded equipment in a depraved way to threaten the lives of people, including an elected official,” Lake posted on X. “If he is found guilty, I hope he is sentenced to the maximum amount of time behind bars.”
Lake also echoed Trump’s call to dismantle the agency entirely: “The alleged actions leading to this arrest illustrate only a small part of the past rot at Voice of America and the U.S. Agency for Global Media. President Trump wants the agency eliminated — I agree with him — it’s time to shut it down.”
The indictment comes amid Kari Lake’s restructuring of the agency that employed Jason. One month ago, Lake detailed the elimination of 1,400 positions at Voice of America and its parent agency, cutting the workforce by 85 percent. “This is a bloated, biased, and dysfunctional organization,” Lake said at the time. Rep. Greene praised the cuts as a direct response to House Oversight efforts that uncovered misconduct and mismanagement at the agency.
