Grenell says he was “rattled” by sentencing of man convicted of threatening him

Ric Grenell, President Trump’s special missions envoy and the former president of the Kennedy Center, says he was “rattled” Wednesday at the sentencing hearing of a man convicted of sending a threatening message to him in December.

Grenell gave a victim impact statement in court before Scott Allen Bolger, a 33-year-old Virginia man, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release. 

Two days before Christmas, Grenell answered a phone call from Bolger, who called Grenell a “coward.” Bolger then sent Grenell a text message through a Google Voice account that read, “Step on U Street and get a bullet put between your eyes, loyalist pig skin p****[.]” 

Grenell said the text message that was the basis of Bolger’s conviction “was not a one-time thing.” He said he received up to 30 calls that night from an anonymous number. But government lawyers said they were unable to trace the anonymous calls to Bolger. 

The Google Voice account used by Bolger was registered using a fake email address to evade detection. Once Grenell received a call that displayed a number — when Bolger called him a “coward” — he reported it to the FBI. 

During his statement, Grenell said that he was accustomed to criticism from both sides as a gay conservative, but that Bolger was “unhinged,” and his actions crossed the line.

After the hearing, Grenell talked with CBS News about the experience of being in the same courtroom as Bolger. 

“I was surprised that you walk over, and you’re steps away from the guy who wants to kill you,” Grenell said. He also said that he thought the 15-month prison sentence was adequate. 

Grenell told the court, “I don’t want there to be a victim like my friend, Charlie Kirk.” He said he forgives Bolger but added that he is “fearful of the day he gets out.”  

A lawyer for Bolger said in court documents that he loved the Kennedy Center and became “extremely upset” when he learned the board, led by Grenell, had voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” (In May, a judge ruled that Mr. Trump’s name must be removed from the center and blocked plans to close it during renovations.)

Bolger also gave a statement in court, apologizing to Grenell and his family and saying his actions were not excusable, “no matter how much politics and the Kennedy Center means to me.” 

“I don’t want to silence debate, but we do need to recognize that mentally unstable people are hearing what we’re saying and taking action that you may not authorize, but they are taking that action,” Grenell told CBS News. 

Grenell blamed Democrats and media outlets — among them, MS Now, the Daily Beast and Huffington Post — for fueling political violence.

“The left violence is growing in this country,” he said. “We have to admit it.”

A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in December identified an increase in left-wing terrorism attacks, though it also said that the rise was “from very low levels and remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers.” The study found that 2025 marked the “first time in more than 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumber those from the violent far right.”