A federal judge sentenced a Vinalhaven man to 27 months in prison for making repeated threats to an employee of the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C.

Eric Malmstrom, 40, was found guilty in August of three counts of transmitting threatening interstate communications. The sentence handed down Tuesday also includes three years of supervised release. Malmstrom already has filed a notice of appeal of the judge’s sentence.

The jury had reached a swift verdict in a one-day trial in U.S. District Court in Portland.

“This case demonstrates that threats against public officials will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted,” U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank said in a news release. “Targeting a government official because of his or her official status threatens not only the particular individual victim, but also the system of government as a whole.”

During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby described the threats as “a despicable set of crimes.”

Court documents show Malmstrom placed hundreds of calls to the Swedish embassy and one particular employee between September 2017 and March 2018. The evidence at trial showed that on three occasions last year, he threatened to slit the employee’s throat and her children’s throats. He was arrested in March on a warrant issued at the request of the U.S. Secret Service.

Megan Gray can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

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