Man who threatened to kill CDC head pleads guilty to charges

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man who threatened to kill Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky has pleaded guilty to making threats in interstate commerce. Court records say that that Robert Wiser Bates threatened to kill Walensky in voicemails left in July 2021 at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta. Federal prosecutors say he admitted to making the threatening calls in an interview with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bates also said he would kill Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president. Bates faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.