EGN NEWS DESK
A troubled veteran stalked a high-profile former F.B.I. official at her home in Washington final 12 months — simply weeks after the bureau decided he didn’t pose an imminent menace regardless of his documented obsession with weapons and mass shootings, investigators stated.
John C. Perez, 32, an ex-Marine who lives in California, pleaded responsible on Thursday to a federal misdemeanor stalking cost as a part of a plea deal that bars him from visiting the Washington space for the following six months, and requires him to attend a half-dozen remedy classes.
The former F.B.I. lawyer, Lisa Page, who grew to become a persistent goal of President Donald J. Trump after her textual content messages grew to become public in 2017, attended Mr. Perez’s listening to within the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She requested the judge for extra stringent restrictions and accused the bureau of failing to warn her of the potential menace posed by Mr. Perez.
In mid-December, Mr. Perez confirmed up a minimum of 4 instances at Ms. Page’s home in Washington, making a weird declare that she had been witness to his childhood sexual abuse, regardless that the 2 had by no means met, in response to a warrant from the Metropolitan Police Department. During one go to, he interacted with Ms. Page’s 11-year-old son.
“The F.B.I. knew about his fixation on me since September, and so they stated nothing,” Ms. Page stated, her voice breaking with emotion and as she stood three toes from Mr. Perez, who remained expressionless. “Three months later, he was on my doorstep.”
A spokeswoman for the bureau didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
Ms. Page, who labored for the F.B.I. on investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail server whereas secretary of state and into potential ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign, criticized Mr. Trump throughout his candidacy in textual content exchanges with one other bureau official.
She resigned in May 2018 and have become a goal of Mr. Trump and his supporters, who claimed that they represented a “deep state” cabal intent on destroying him.
On Thursday, she instructed the courtroom she had endured “5 years of threats by the previous president” and his followers, however that nothing had shaken her as deeply as “this occasion.”
Her emotional attraction roused a rumpled assemblage of public defenders, clerks and other people accused of low-level offenses in a closely trafficked courtroom the place plea offers and bench warrants are sometimes dispatched with out fuss or fanfare.
The judge, Robert I. Richter — one of many longest tenured jurists on the federal bench — rested chin available and expressed his sympathy with Ms. Page, however didn’t order any adjustments to the deal, citing the defendant’s lack of a previous legal file.
“I don’t know that I disagree with you,” he stated. “But it’s arduous for me to seek out higher choices. It’s not like we are able to put him away perpetually.”
Judge Richter then turned to Mr. Perez, a slim man with a inflexible army bearing, razor-shaved head and a white gown shirt buttoned to the highest. He warned him “to cease this nonsense” and stated he would face a protracted jail sentence if he continued to stalk Ms. Page or did something to run afoul of the regulation.
“I’m going to cooperate,” Mr. Perez assured him.
Prosecutors stated Mr. Perez traveled cross-country final December with the only real goal of confronting Ms. Page, after changing into obsessed together with her after seeing her on the information.
The courtroom paperwork don’t point out that Mr. Perez had any political motivations, however somewhat that he noticed Ms. Page as the one one that might present “closure” in his life.
The Marines discharged Mr. Perez in May 2023 after he made a sequence of weird statements involving Ms. Page that had been, upon examination, discovered to be a symptom of a severe delusional dysfunction, in response to the arrest warrant.
He was barred from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the place he had been stationed, after army investigators flagged his “erratic habits,” a need to acquire weapons, “obsession with mass shootings,” fixation on baby intercourse abuse and the likelihood he would possibly interact in office violence.
The Marines handed the data alongside to the F.B.I. round that point. During an interview with brokers, Mr. Perez repeated his delusional claims, in response to the affidavit.
But they didn’t take motion or notify Ms. Page, she stated in courtroom, exercising her proper as a criminal offense sufferer to remark earlier than sentencing.
In February, M.P.D. detectives efficiently requested an arrest warrant for Mr. Perez, citing his “persistent and growingly aggressive habits.”
He complied and flew again to Washington voluntarily.
