Amherst man who threatened members of Congress gets 33 months

CONCORD - An Amherst man was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for six counts of threatening members of Congress and one count of transmitting interstate threatening communications, the U.S. Attorneys Office released on Wednesday.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in the early morning hours of December 16, 2020, Ryder Winegar, 34, left voicemails at the offices of six members of the U.S. Congress in the District of Columbia. The calls were directed at three senators and three members of the House of Representatives. In some of the messages, Winegar identified himself by name or identified his telephone number. The voicemails threatened to hang the members of Congress if they did not "get behind Donald Trump."

The messages included very specific threats of violence. For example, in one message, Winegar allegedly said, "I got some advice for you. Here's the advice, Donald Trump is your president. If you don't get behind him, we're going to hang you until you die." In another message, Winegar said, "And it really, really, it boils down to two camps. You either support our president, support liberty, and f*** this global homo, uh, vaccination Jewish agenda, or you're not. In which case we're going to f***ing kill you. Do you understand?"

Members of the U.S. Capitol Police attempted to interview Winegar on Dec. 20, 2020, but Winegar refused to speak with the officers. On the following day, before investigators could return with search and arrest warrants, Winegar flew to Brazil, leaving his family behind. Winegar was taken into custody when he returned to the United States on Jan. 11.

Following his arrest investigators learned of a separate, e-mailed threat to a member of the New Hampshire State House of Representatives on Dec. 14, 2020, in which Winegar threatened to pull the representative from his bed and hang him.

Winegar previously pleaded guilty on Aug. 6. He has been in custody since his January arrest. In addition to his sentence, Winegar was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine.