North Georgia woman indicted for making bomb threat

MACON — A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging a northeast Georgia woman with threatening to bomb the Athens-Clarke County Democratic Committee Campaign headquarters in Athens earlier this month and lying to federal investigators.

Jessica Diane Higginbotham, aka Jessica Harriod, 35, of Elberton, is charged with one count of communicating a bomb threat and one count of making false statements. If convicted of communicating a bomb threat, Higginbotham faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. If convicted of making false statements, she faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

Higginbotham is currently in state custody; she will have an initial appearance in front of a U.S. District Court magistrate judge at a later date.

The indictment alleges that Higginbotham made a threat to bomb the Athens-Clarke County Democratic Committee Campaign building in Athens on Dec. 3 and lied to federal agents on Dec. 4 about her knowledge of a specific email address and the use of the TextNow communication application on her Samsung cellphone, both of which belong to her.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department and the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Will R. Keyes is prosecuting the case.

An indictment is only an allegation of criminal conduct, and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt.

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