A five-time Emmy-nominated cameraman was sentenced Thursday to six months of house arrest for making death threats against Matt Gaetz and his Florida family. Eugene Huelsman, 59, called Gaetz’s congressional office on Jan. 9, 2021, and left a profanity-laced voicemail threatening the GOP representative, according to the Justice Department. He pleaded guilty in April to one count of interstate menacing, according to court documents seen by Insider. “Say [Matt Gaetz] to watch his back, tell him to watch his children, tell him to watch everybody. I’m coming for him,” Huelsman told the operator, the documents show. His message, which lasted about two minutes, included threats to “put a bullet” in Gaetz and members of his family. “I hope you die in a shallow grave, you miserable tyrant,” Huelsman said at the end of his voicemail, according to court records. U.S. District Court Judge T. Kent Wetherell II also sentenced Huelsman to five years of probation and a $10,000 fine, according to court documents. Huelsman’s attorney, Curtis Fallgatter, told Politico that the cameraman sent the emotionally charged voicemail because he was upset about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Gaetz has long courted controversy for publicly praising rioters as “good people” and “patriotic Americans.” Fallgatter also told Politico that Huelsman “lost all of his work” because of his arrest in California in October. The cameraman is credited for his work on high-profile shows such as “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” He received five Emmy nominations between 2004 and 2008 for his work on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” The Justice Department said Huelsman had previously been investigated by the Secret Service for threatening a former president and his family. Authorities did not specify who that president was. “The free exercise of speech is central to our democracy,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Jason Cuddy said in the Justice Department’s public statement. “However, the communication of threats of physical violence, in this case by a person who had previously made and been investigated for similar threats of violence, is clearly illegal.” Fallgatter and a representative for Gaetz did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
