Louis Geri will be spending the next five years and ten months in federal prison for threatening to detonate more than 100 improvised explosive devices on the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, DC.
Is that enough time behind bars? Probably not.
You see, this wasn’t just a normal bomb threat. On Monday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro revealed that the threat coincided with the annual Red Mass — a service often attended by Supreme Court justices and other senior government officials.
Despite Geri’s high-profile targets, violent threats, and outrageous demands, Judge Randolph Moss granted a shorter sentence in response to the defense’s argument, saying his “conduct was the product of a treatable medical condition spiraling out of control, not malice or an actual intent to harm.”
According to reporting by ABC News, Geri had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been skipping his medicine in the months leading up to the incident. Defense counsel claimed that this crime was driven by mental illness — not malice.
This is ridiculous. Mental illness does not justify endangering law-abiding Americans. We don’t want him around our kids, in our neighborhoods, or at our places of work.
Any judge that expedites the release of a would-be terrorist clearly has insufficient regard for human welfare.
Should a criminal serve more time or less when mental illness contributed to his violent actions?
Consider the facts of the case:
On Oct. 5, 2025, Metropolitan Police Department officers approached a tent in front of St. Matthew’s. Inside of that tent, they found 42-year-old Louis Geri. They told him to move. He didn’t and then threatened to throw one of his IEDs into the street to prove its power.
“Several of your people are gonna die from one of these,” Geri told the law enforcement officers. He then asked to negotiate with federal officers.
He wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars, extended accommodations at the Mayflower Hotel, a flight to Japan, and he wanted the Supreme Court to kick Arizona out of the Union and declare it a “foreign enemy.” His demands also disproportionately targeted leaders of the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths.
Ultimately, his nine pages of demands were ignored, negotiations never took place, and the cops were able to take Geri into custody. Following his arrest, he admitted that he wanted to use force to coerce negotiations and that he was willing to use the explosives to harm people and property.
Potential targets? St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the White House, the Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol, and the Supreme Court. And, assumedly, the Supreme Court justices themselves.
Obama-appointed Judge Moss wants to see this man back in polite society in less than six years. This is unacceptable.
A judge’s job isn’t to play therapist — it’s to keep dangerous people away from potential victims. That’s it.
The first two priorities of the U.S. justice system are to punish the wrongdoer and maintain public safety. While inmate rehabilitation is important, it should be subordinate to these other areas of focus.
Call me crazy, but maybe — just maybe — people who threaten to detonate 100 bombs unless Arizona is expelled from the union should not be on our streets.
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