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A 33-year-old McLean man pleaded guilty Thursday to threatening to shoot Richard Grenell, a special presidential envoy and longtime ally of President Donald Trump who also serves as acting president of the Kennedy Center.
Scott Allen Bolger admitted to one count of making an interstate threat. On Dec. 23, he used Google Voice to send Grenell a message threatening to shoot him in the head if he stepped onto U Street, according to an affidavit.
Court documents did not identify the target by name, but Grenell publicly acknowledged the case after Bolger’s arrest. In a Dec. 31, 2025, post on X, Grenell thanked Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and then-U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for apprehending the person who threatened him. The post later disappeared because Grenell had configured his account to remove posts after 30 days.
The threat was reported to the FBI, which traced it to Bolger using information in a law enforcement database.
Police visited Bolger’s McLean apartment the day after the message was sent. Bolger initially gave officers a false name and denied that anyone named Scott Bolger lived there, the affidavit said. He confirmed his identity only after officers asked apartment-building staff whether he was a tenant.
During a later interview, Bolger admitted searching online for Grenell’s phone number and calling it to verify that it was correct before sending the threat.
Bolger was arrested Dec. 26 and has remained in custody since then.
At Thursday’s plea hearing, Bolger also admitted sending threatening and harassing messages to a second person who is not a public official. Prosecutors said he created multiple X and Proton Mail accounts to target that person between October 2022 and November 2025.
Bolger also sent private indecent images involving the second victim and created a publicly accessible profile displaying the images, according to prosecutors. He was not charged over those messages.
Bolger is scheduled to be sentenced May 20. He faces a maximum of five years in prison.