TAMPA, Florida — A Tampa man has pleaded guilty in federal court to making threats to kill a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and to threaten a federal official who serves as an adviser to the President and that official's wife, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Middle District of Florida

Robert Logan Shoecraft III, 35, of Tampa, pleaded guilty to interstate communication of threats to injure and kill, U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison, the Justice Department said. A sentencing date has not yet been set. WFLA Tampa Bay also reported the guilty plea, citing the Department of Justice.

Source: WFLA Tampa Bay via Spot On Florida

The first threat: a voicemail to a House office in May 2024

According to the plea agreement, in May 2024 Shoecraft called the office of a Member of the United States House of Representatives and left an offensive, threatening voicemail, the Justice Department said. In that message, prosecutors said, he told the member, in substance, that 'we're coming for you' and threatened to kill the member, saying the callers had guns too. The Justice Department's release reproduced the message with profanity; Awaaz Punjab is paraphrasing the profanity while keeping the threat itself exact in substance.

The department did not name the House member in its plea release, and Awaaz Punjab is not naming a member the release did not identify. The threat was made to a congressional office — the kind of office that constituents, including diaspora families, contact for help with immigration cases, passports and federal benefits — and it was investigated as a threat against a federal official, not as ordinary political criticism.

The second threat: a social-media message on October 31, 2025

Then, on October 31, 2025, Shoecraft sent a threat by direct message through social media to the wife of a federal official who serves as an Adviser to the President of the United States, according to the plea agreement. Prosecutors said the message told the couple, in substance, that they would be dragged through the streets and made to suffer for what they had done, and that they had no idea what was in store for them. The Justice Department did not name that official or his wife in the release.

The two communications, about 17 months apart, are the conduct covered by the guilty plea. Shoecraft was first charged in this case when a federal criminal complaint was unsealed, the Justice Department and the FBI said at the charging stage; the plea now replaces a trial on the charge described in the plea agreement.

Who investigated, and who is prosecuting

The case was investigated by the United States Capitol Police, the United States Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the Justice Department said. It is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Wheeler III and Assistant United States Attorney Karyna Valdes.

The Capitol Police protect members of Congress and their offices, the Secret Service protects senior federal officials and investigates threats against people under its protection, and the FBI investigates interstate threats — which is why a voicemail left in Florida for a House office and a social-media direct message can become a federal case in the Middle District of Florida rather than only a local complaint.

Background: where political speech ends and a federal threat begins

Criticising an elected official, even angrily, is protected political speech in the United States. Communicating a threat to injure or kill a specific person across state lines is a separate federal crime. Prosecutors in threat cases point to the words used, the target identified and the means of delivery — here, a recorded voicemail to an official office and a direct message to an official's family member — to separate an insult or protest from a threat the law treats as a crime.

For readers, the practical line in this case is the one in the plea agreement itself: the defendant did not merely post a general opinion. According to prosecutors, he directed kill threats at a named office and at a specific official's wife, and he has now admitted the interstate-threat charge in court by pleading guilty.

What happens next

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled in federal court in Tampa, where a judge will impose a sentence up to the 10-year maximum described by the Justice Department, taking the plea and the sentencing record into account. No sentencing date had been set when the plea was announced, the department said. Until sentencing, the guilty plea — not a jury verdict — is the legal status of the case, and the details above are those Shoecraft's plea agreement and prosecutors have placed on the record.