College Athlete Pleads Guilty to Threatening to Kill Matt Gaetz Over LGBTQ+ Rights

A college student in New Hampshire on Thursday pleaded guilty in a federal court to threatening to kill Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz in a voicemail earlier this year.

Allan Poller, 24, admitted to investigators he left the voicemail in the early morning hours of March 29 following a night of drinking and watching TikTok videos. The DOJ announced in a statement the freshman student-athlete pleaded guilty to a single count of transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure the person of another. Poller, who was a member of the track and field team at Keene State College in Keene, was arrested on April 3.

“Hi, my name is Allan Poller, A-L-L-A-N P-O-L-L-E-R, phone number [number deleted],” the student-athlete said in the voicemail according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young. “And I just want to let you know, Representative [named deleted], if you keep on coming for the gays, we’re gonna strike back and I guarantee you, you do not want to f*ck with us. We will kill you if that’s what it takes. I will take a bullet to your f*cking head if you f*ck with my rights anymore. And then if you want to keep going down that path, you know who’s next.”

While the DOJ did not release the identity of the victim, Gaetz previously confirmed he was the man to whom Poller directed the threat. Gaetz played the threatening voicemail on an episode of his Firebrand with Matt Gaetzpodcast earlier this year.

Gaetz, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, led the historic successful effort to oust the former Speaker of the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California earlier this month. Gaetz and his conservative Republican colleagues were upset that McCarthy reneged on promises he made to be elected Speaker. Gaetz is reportedly not well-liked by many of his colleagues.

“I won’t go near him. Nothing is worth dealing with him,” an anonymous Republican lobbyist told John Casey of The Advocate earlier this year. “I’d rather resign than take a meeting with Gaetz. I don’t know anyone who would say anything nice about him, and again, I’m not telling you something that's breaking news. And like Cruz, Gaetz knows everyone hates him, but doesn’t care.”

Poller ran for the track and field team at Keene State, where the team’s website lists his specialties as sprints and jumps. According to the Track & Field Results Reporting System, Poller achieved his best results, a first-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay at the Jim Sheehan Memorial Track & Field Invitational at Fitchburg State University in Fitchburg, Mass., on April 9, less than a week after his arrest.

Poller faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised probation, and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Landya B. McCafferty on January 18, 2024.