North Carolina man arrested by FBI over threatening tweet at Rep. John Lewis
Joseph Cecil Vandevere of Black Mountain, North Carolina was arrested by the FBI in April 2018 for a tweet directed at Rep. John Lewis depicting a lynching image and the words 'TRAITORS & TRECHEROUS [sic] SNAKES … NEED A BULLET.' He was convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) and sentenced to four months in prison.
In December 2017, Joseph Cecil Vandevere posted a tweet at Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) showing a photograph of a lynching with the text 'TRAITORS & TRECHEROUS SNAKES THAT MUST BE PUT DOWN NEED A BULLET .. !!!' FBI agents arrested him at his Black Mountain, North Carolina home in April 2018. He was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). At a bench trial he was convicted and sentenced to four months' imprisonment and three years' supervised release. The Fourth Circuit affirmed the conviction in 2020 (United States v. Vandevere, 811 F. App'x 161), holding the tweet a true threat under Elonis. The case is frequently cited in social-media true-threat doctrine alongside Counterman v. Colorado (2023).