Nurse pleads guilty to threatening to kill VP Kamala Harris

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A Florida nurse is facing up to five years in prison after admitting she threatened to kill Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Niviane Petit Phelps sent her jailed husband six 30-second videos in which she claimed that she had been paid $53,000 to kill the VP.
• Phelps, who is Black, told investigators that she threatened Harris because she doesn’t believe she’s Black.

A Miami-based nurse pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris in several videos sent to her imprisoned husband earlier this year.

On Friday, Niviane Petit Phelps pleaded guilty to six counts and faces up to five years in prison, according to prosecutors.

Phelps sent six 30-second videos to her incarcerated husband through JPay, a computer app used to send media to those in jail. An inspector sent them to the Secret Service.

In the videos, Phelps threatened to kill the vice president and said that she had been paid $53,000 to do the job, making her “the hit man.” There’s also a photo of her holding a handgun at a shooting range. She also claimed that she applied for a concealed firearm permit.

Her attorney, Scott Saul, said that Phelps was going through a tumultuous time in her life and just venting and that she never had any intent to carry out any threats.

“Ms. Phelps has led an honorable life until this incident,” Saul said, adding that it was important for her to accept responsibility. “Ms. Phelps has pled guilty, but she plans on demonstrating significant mitigating circumstances.”

The nurse told a Secret Service investigator that she was upset that Harris was vice president and that she believed the VP had not placed her hand on a Bible during her inauguration, the investigator wrote in an affidavit. Phelps, who is Black, added that she felt Harris was not really Black.

Posts on social media claiming that Harris did not place her hand on the Bible but on a purse or a glove when sworn in are false. The VP placed her hand on the Bible during her inauguration on Jan. 20.

Harris is the first Black American, the first South Asian American and the first woman elected vice president in U.S. history.

Phelps’ mother has told NBC Miami that her 39-year-old daughter was depressed and “she listened to what people tell her.”

Phelps is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 19.

Source: NBC News