A Mobile man admitted in federal court this week he called the White House switchboard in July 2022 and told the operator “I am coming to assassinate the president. I can’t wait to see your faces when I put a bullet in him.”

John Andrew Bazor Jr., 38, pleaded guilty to one count of making interstate threatening communications. In exchange for Bazor’s guilty plea, federal prosecutors dropped the charge of making threats against the President and successors to the Presidency, according to federal court documents.

Court records also show the U.S. Attorney’s Office has recommended Bazor be sentenced to time served — he has been jailed since August 2022 — but the presiding district court judge may not accept the prosecution’s recommendation, according to a report by WALA.

Bazor’s attorney noted the time his client has already served is longer than the minimum sentence under federal guidelines, but U.S. Code allows for a maximum sentence of two years. Had Bazor been found guilty of making a threat against the president, he was facing a maximum sentence of five years.

In expressing hesitancy to accept the U.S. Attorney’s recommendation, U.S. District Court Judge Kristi DuBose noted Bazor’s criminal record, which includes a pending trial for domestic violence and drug possession.

Bazor was arrested in February 2022 and charged with 3rd-degree domestic violence/harassment. State court documents say Bazor threatened to kill a woman and her mother. He was freed on bail, with the court ordering he have no contact with the victim of her mother.

In August 2022 — after Bazor was charged with threatening the president — the domestic violence case was bound over to a grand jury pending the outcome of the federal case.

As of Thursday afternoon, DuBose had yet to pass sentence on Bazor.

Last month, a forensic pathologist found that Bazor was not afflicted with any mental disease or defect and is thus able to understand the nature of his actions and the consequences of the charges against him, according to federal court documents.

After Bazor made the threatening call to the White House, U.S. Army Sergeant Samuel Kash notified the United States Secret Service’s Protective Intelligence Operations Center of the incident. The following day, Bazor’s phone number was subpoenaed, according to the affidavit.

An initial investigation found that Bazor left a series of rambling voicemail messages at the Secret Service’s Mobile Resident Office during the weekend of July 9. He also went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Mobile to file a complaint.

Federal investigators also learned that Bazor made several calls to the Secret Service office in Mobile before he called the White House. A witness told investigators they noticed an unidentified white male in the lobby of the office building on July 8, rambling about the Secret Service ruining his life.

A week after his calls, agents were able to find a potential address for him and went to visit on July 17. When they arrived, his mother came to the door.

According to the affidavit, Bazor’s mother told agents that he had never been diagnosed officially with a mental illness, but she tried on numerous occasions to get him committed. She also said he had been trying to get her to rent him a car so he could travel to Washington, D.C. for “unknown reasons,” according to court records.

In 2017, according to her, Bazor was involuntary committed to Mobile Infirmary but to her knowledge, never received a diagnosis.

Bazor also previously threatened to blow up a hotel in Mobile, according to the affidavit.

Bazor was arrested by federal agents a week after the threat against Biden, reportedly admitting to agents he both made the threat and wanted to carry it out.