Late Rep. Skelton faced death threats

“DONT KILL NAPSTER>OR ILL KILL YOU,” read an email to the late Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) in 2001.

After a probe by the FBI, however, the sender turned out to be a man (or teenage boy) who had “made a stupid mistake” by sending the email, according to interviews with investigators, and was “just trying to impress his friends.”

After being “admonished” by FBI agents, documents say he agreed to send Skelton an apology note. The link between Napster and the longtime lawmaker was not clear.

{mosads}This is one of several death threats against Skelton, a powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, investigated by federal law enforcement during his 34 years in office and part of the bureau’s redacted file on the lawmaker.

The Hill obtained that FBI file on Monday through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed after his death. Skelton lost a reelection bid in the 2010 midterms, and he died in October 2013.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is another hot-button issue that prompted outrage from some Missourians.

In 1993, the FBI investigated threatening calls received not only by Skelton’s congressional office but others in nearby delegations, including a congresswoman whose name is redacted.

The caller urged the congresswoman to vote against NAFTA, but told of her support for NAFTA, the caller referring to her as “that fu—-g bitch” and said that if she came back to Kansas, he would make sure she wouldn’t leave alive.

Offices of Skelton and a senator received “similarly worded” calls, laden with obscenities, according to the documents. No direct threats were made against Skelton.

The FBI tracked the caller to his home in Missouri, and upon showing up at his front door, the man reportedly said, “You’re here about the phone calls, aren’t you?”

The man — whose last name is Nugent, as revealed by the documents — told officers that he never meant to harm anyone. He was opposed to the NAFTA proposal and, after weeks of calling elected officials to express his opposition, Nugent felt as if no one was listening to him. Some offices began to hang up on him.

He told the FBI that he initially “tried to talk in an even and calm manner, but admitted he ‘lost his cool,’ ” agents wrote in their report.

“He repeatedly stated he ‘crossed the line out of a sense of desperation’ and because he felt he was part of a group who had no representation.’”

After talking with a person close to Nugent, who convinced agents he was harmless, the investigation was closed.