| August 27, 2022, 10:10 pm
| Updated: 11:26 p.m
Utah independent U.S. Senate candidate Evan McMullin and his wife were allegedly threatened at gunpoint by a driver who followed their vehicle after an April campaign trail, according to court documents obtained Saturday by The Salt Lake Tribune. The couple was returning home from an April 10 campaign event in southern Utah when they were “followed, chased and threatened at gunpoint” by the 44-year-old man, who was driving a “large truck,” the documents state. . The man was charged in Highland, Utah, that month with a misdemeanor count of threatening with a dangerous weapon and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name defendants charged with felonies. According to a victim impact statement McMullin filed Wednesday, which is sealed in court records but provided Saturday to The Tribune, the man “aggressively followed” McMullin and his wife as they drove home in Utah County, forcing at some point the pair of cars in oncoming traffic. The man then pulled up next to the couple’s car brandishing a firearm, “pointing it in our direction in a threatening manner,” McMullin wrote in the crash affidavit. “My wife and I did nothing to threaten, harm or provoke [the man] throughout this incident,” McMullin wrote. “We just drove the natural route home, called 911 when we realized we were being followed and tried to leave when it was clear we were in danger.” In the impact statement, McMullin said the defendant in this case “served for years as a military police officer” and in other law enforcement roles. McMullin also wrote that his campaign has taken additional security measures because of the man’s “willingness to resort to violence as a way of handling conflict.” “He knew better than to do what he did — or at least he should have known better,” McMullin wrote, adding that the man “must have been well aware of the danger of his actions and their criminal act that night, however he took them. Anyway.” On Thursday, McMullin filed a motion to unseal the impact statement, which would have made it available to the public. The motion pointed to the “nature of this crime” and McMullin’s public profile as a candidate for the U.S. Senate and a previous candidate for the U.S. presidency. “The only interests in keeping the file confidential are McMullin’s own rights to privacy, which McMullin wishes to waive,” the motion states. A judge had not ruled on that motion as of Saturday. The defendant pleaded not guilty to both charges during a court hearing in July, during which McMullin identified him to a judge as the man who threatened him and his wife, court records state. The candidate has not previously spoken publicly about the ordeal, but in a statement sent to The Tribune on Saturday, McMullin said, “It put my life and my wife’s life in danger and I am cooperating fully with law enforcement who have charged him with related crimes.” A trial in the case is scheduled for September 2. — Tribune staff writer Bryan Schott contributed to this report.
