Miami-based Jackson Health System has suspended and plans to terminate a nurse who is charged with making threats to kill Vice President Kamala Harris, NBC News reported April 17.
Niviane Petit Phelps, who has been employed by Jackson Health System for the last 20 years, was arrested April 15 on federal charges after she allegedly sent a series of videos and photographs to her husband in prison, according to NBC News, citing a Secret Service complaint.
"The videos generally depict Phelps complaining and speaking angrily to the camera about her hatred for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, among others," authorities said. "However, in those videos, Phelps also made statements about killing Vice President Harris."
Federal authorities said the threats from Ms. Phelps were serious enough that she applied for a concealed weapons permit and practiced at a gun range. In one video, Ms. Phelps allegedly claims that someone paid her $53,000 to harm the vice president, according to NBC News.
Jackson Health said Ms. Phelps most recently worked as a licensed practical nurse in the Ambulatory Care Center West at Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami. The health system said Ms. Phelps was "suspended without pay while we process her employment termination," according to NBC News.
On April 17, a lawyer representing Ms. Phelps told the Miami Herald that he was still reviewing the case, and the videos were intended as private conversations between Ms. Phelps and her husband.
"Based upon my limited knowledge, I do not think my client was a genuine threat to the vice president. All this case involved was my client venting to her incarcerated husband (where the communications were recorded and then forwarded to law enforcement)," Scott Saul said in an emailed statement to the Herald.
Read the full NBC News article here.
Read the full Miami Herald article here.