Florida Woman Pleads Guilty, Faces Five-Year Prison Term For Threatening to Kill Kamala Harris

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Niviane Petit Phelps, a former Florida nurse, has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris. She faces a five-year prison term. Phelps made multiple threats to Harris’s life shortly after Harris and President Joe Biden were sworn into office in January.

Kamala Harris, you are going to die. Your days are numbered already. Someone paid me $53,000 just to f— you up and I’m gonna take the, I’m gonna do the job, okay,” Phelps said at the time in one of several videos she sent to her husband.

Phelps, who is Black, was arrested in April after a complaint was filed against her. She claimed she made the threats because she did not believe Harris. who has an Indian mother and Jamaican father, is actually Black. She also claimed that Harris did not swear on the Bible––instead, placing her hand on her purse––during her swearing-in, a claim that has been debunked.

According to The Washington Post, Phelps “pleaded guilty to six counts of making threats against the vice president — each representing one of the 30-second videos in which she said she would assassinate Harris.”

Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19.

Phelps’s attorney, Scott Saul, told the Miami Herald that Phelps did not actually intend to follow through on her threats to assassinate the vice president.

“[She] was just venting as she was going through a tumultuous time in her life,” he said, adding that “it has been important for Ms. Phelps to demonstrate her acceptance of responsibility as she begins to atone for her aberrant actions.”