Bier

MEMORANDUM **

Defendant-appellant Anthony Joseph Bier (“Bier”) was charged with two counts of knowingly and willfully threatening to take the life of the President, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871 (a). Following a jury trial, he was convicted of both counts. The district court sentenced him to forty-one months imprisonment, one year of supervised release, and a $200 special assessment.

On appeal, Bier argues that the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of § 871(a) is over-broad; that the district court improperly applied U.S.S.G. § 3A1.2; and that the forty-one-month sentence imposed by the district court was unreasonable.

We discuss these three contentions in turn, and affirm Bier’s conviction and sentence.

I.

The district court instructed the jury that to convict Bier under 18 U.S.C. *230 § 871 (a) they were required to find that the government had proved two elements beyond a reasonable doubt: first, that the “defendant knowingly and willfully threatened, in writing, to kill the President of the United States” and second, that “under the circumstances in which the threat was made, a reasonable person would foresee that it would be understood by persons reading it as a serious…