A Wiseman resident was sentenced to two years in prison last week after an August guilty plea in relation to two counts of threatening to assault federal officers, the Department of Justice announced.

Following his release from prison, 52-year-old Jay Rolf Armstrong was ordered to be subject to one year of supervised release and to pay a $2,000 fine by U.S. District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline.

Armstrong, in 2016, made numerous complaints to BLM regarding denials by that agency of mining permits to allow him to mine on public lands. By January, 2017, Armstrong’s conversations with BLM turned into threats.

In mid-January, Armstrong called BLM and said, “We should just go out and kill these sons of bitches. Honestly, I have half a mind to walk down there and mess them up right now,” court documents revealed. That initial threatening call was followed by another that day, where prosecutors say, Arrmstrong told a Fairbanks BLM official by phone, “Don’t think for a second that if we don’t
get this resolved that I won’t pick up arms. I will pick up arms, and I will kill you guys. That’s not a
threat.”[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]When the FBI and BLM investigated the threats, they heard Armstrong firing off weapons, that included a .50 caliber rifle and semi-automatic weapons at his residence. When the FBI searched his residence, they found “a variety of firearms including rifles, shotguns, revolvers, rifle scopes, thousands of rounds of ammunition, ammunition magazines, firearm parts, gunpowder, shell casings, primers, bayonets and a large gun safe containing two .50 caliber rifles, additional firearms and ammunition,” prosecutors said in court.

Armstrong’s sentence was the result of a joint investigation of the FBI and BLM.

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