A Tukwila man who repeatedly phoned a member of Congress’ office with violent threats pleaded guilty on Oct. 31 to a federal charge of transmitting an interstate threat, according to court documents.
Bradley Whaley was arrested in downtown Seattle on March 21, one day after investigators say he threatened to “slit” the lawmaker’s throat and harm staff during a call to the representative’s Washington, D.C., office.
According to MyNorthwest.com, the lawmaker was Rep. Dan Newhouse.
The threat came from a cell phone traced to the Tukwila area, according to a detailed criminal complaint.
The documents say that an intern answered the March 20 phone call shortly before 2 p.m. Pacific time.
The staffer immediately recognized Whaley’s voice from earlier calls and voicemails.
During the call, Whaley asked to speak with the representative.
When told the lawmaker was not in the D.C. office, he asked if the representative was at the district office in Washington state and then said that if the representative was there, he would “slit [his/her] throat and slit [his/her] staff’s throat.” Whaley added, “yeah it’s two pm, I still have plenty of time to do that.”
The intern wrote down Whaley’s statements immediately after hanging up and reported that the call lasted about 45 seconds.
The staff member also photographed the office phone’s display to document the incoming number, which matched a T-Mobile number ending in 1016 that investigators later traced to Whaley’s household.
Phone records obtained from T-Mobile confirmed that Whaley’s number placed a call to the congressional office at 1:43 p.m. that day.
The call connected through a cell tower in Tukwila, which investigators said matched the timeline of the threatening call.
The subscriber listed for the number was a woman with a Burlington address previously linked to Whaley.
Agents noted they believed she was a relative.
Court documents show the March 20 threat was not the first time Whaley had contacted the office.
A week earlier, on March 13, he had threatened to “drive to D.C., kick down your door” and assault the representative and “everyone in [the] office,” according to the staffer’s notes.
That report was the fourth written about Whaley’s communications.
The office also retained voicemails from March 15 and March 18.
In the March 15 message, Whaley warned that if his Social Security payment was delayed “one god damn day,” he would confront the representative “face-to-face” and invoked his “Second Amendment right to form a militia.”
In a March 18 message, he again identified himself, provided his phone number, used explicit language to criticize the representative, and stated, “We’re in Washington. We will take his ass out.”
After identifying Whaley’s phone through real-time location data provided by T-Mobile, agents found him at his workplace in downtown Seattle.
He was arrested outside around 2:39 p.m. on March 21.
On Oct. 31, 2025, Whaley pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting an interstate threat.
Sentencing will be set by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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