Man Accused of Threats to Pelosi on Health Care

(CN) - The FBI arrested a California man Wednesday for allegedly making threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the recently passed health care reform bill, The Associated Press reported.

FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler identified the man as Gregory Lee Giusti, 48, of San Francisco, according to NBC.

Federal officials told the AP that the man made dozens of phone calls to Pelosi's homes in California and Washington, and to her husband's office. He allegedly recited her home address and said that if she wanted to see it again, she would stop supporting health care reform.

"The calls were so numerous, the decision was made that something had to be done," one official told NBC.

The man is believed to have reached Pelosi directly at least once, according to an AP source.

Charges are under seal in federal court, but an official told NBC that the man will be charged with violating a federal law against making threatening, abusive or harassing phone calls.

The arrest is the latest in a rash of increasingly aggressive behavior toward lawmakers in the wake of the health bill's passage. Offices of Democratic lawmakers were vandalized, and federal prosecutors charged a Washington state man with making threatening calls to Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. Charges have also been filed against a Philadelphia man accused of threatening Republican Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia in a YouTube video. The top House Republican leader opposed the health care bill.

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