In the deposition, McMullin accused the driver, Jack Aaron Whelchel, of making unprovoked threats that included forcing the couple’s car into oncoming traffic before pointing a firearm in a threatening manner.
Whelchel was charged in April with misdemeanor charges of threatening with a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct. Whelchel pleaded not guilty to both charges. McMullin testified during a preliminary hearing in July that he identified Whelchel as the driver, but the candidate did not publicly mention the incident.
McMullin’s statement to the court adds details about the April 10 incident.
“That night, we and Mr. Welchel traveled the same path for several miles through Utah County, which at first appeared to be a fluke or someone harmlessly traveling the same route as us,” McMullin wrote in his statement.
“Eventually, however, Mr Whelchel aggressively followed us and chased us, pulled his truck alongside us and forced my wife and I into the opposite lane of traffic. He then reached for a firearm, pointing it at us with threatening way,” McMullin added. .
Whelchel’s attorney, Brixton Hakes, said his client disputes McMullin’s version of events, insisting a gun was never aimed at the couple.
“He never held a firearm,” Hakes told CNN.
But during the incident, Whelchel placed a firearm in the vehicle’s center console, Hakes said.
According to Hakes, Whelchel “thought he was being followed” by McMullin, a false assumption the attorney acknowledged.
Hakes said he expects the case to go to a jury trial after a scheduled hearing next month.
In his statement, McMullin pointed to Welchell’s social media presence, which he said includes accusations against politicians he opposes and that “weapons are the tools to continue this war against those he opposes politically.”
Whelchel’s Facebook page includes several far-right memes.
McMullin also noted that, during the investigation, he learned that Whelchel has a military and law enforcement background.
“Mr. Welchel must have been well aware of the danger of his actions and the criminality of them that night, yet he took them anyway,” McMullin wrote.
McMullin’s statement also asks the judge that any sentence against Whelchel, if convicted, include conditions barring him from having any contact with the candidate’s family and campaign staff.
Hakes said his client no longer lives in Utah and will have to travel back to the state to stand trial.
Both men maintain that they did not know each other prior to the incident.
McMullin, who is challenging Utah’s senior senator, Republican Mike Lee, said in a telephone interview that the April incident should serve as a reminder of the danger posed by homegrown extremism.
“I’m in a fight with the far right for American democracy,” McMullin said.
A former CIA officer who sought the presidency as an independent in 2016, McMullin received the endorsement in April of Utah Democrats, who decided not to field a candidate in the 2022 midterm elections to bolster their efforts to unseat Lee.
