Man accused of threatening to shoot Nancy Pelosi was banned from metro Atlanta school

ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has learned that a man facing charges for threatening to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was banned from a metro Atlanta private school.

Cleveland Grover Meredith, originally of Hiawassee, has been charged with threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in text messages he sent after the attack. Federal charging documents show that he texted he was thinking about “putting a bullet in (Pelosi’s) noggin on live TV.”

Channel 2′s Tony Thomas reached out to The Lovett School about Meredith’s connection on Monday. Here is the statement from the school:

“The Lovett School can confirm that Cleveland G. Meredith, Jr. is a 1986 graduate of the school. Lovett severed its relationship with this alumnus and banned him from campus in 2019 due to threats of violence.”

Meredith also faces weapons charges after he texted a friend he was headed to Washington with armor-piercing ammo.

According to a report filed by federal agents, Meredith intended on attending the planned Trump protest on Jan. 6 but had car trouble on the way. Meredith headed to Washington anyway, where FBI agents found him at a hotel room on Jan. 7.

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Meredith told agents he had two firearms in his vehicle. Agents found a Glock 19, 9-mm pistol, an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in a trailer attached to his truck. Meredith did not have registration to have any firearms in Washington.

Meredith showed agents the string of text messages in which he made the threats. At one point, a family member told Meredith he was worried about him. Meredith said he was “just having fun” and that he had “been on the radar for awhile and they now (sic) I am harmless.”

“I predict that within 12 days, many in our country will die,” he wrote in one text.

Meredith also admitted to agents he participated in a protest outside Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s home.

Meredith was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, possession of an unregistered firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition, according to court records.

Meredith owned a car wash in Smyrna before moving to north Georgia about two years ago.

In 2018, Meredith erected a billboard on Cobb Parkway in Acworth advertising the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. QAnon subscribers believe that there is a secret cabal of pedophiles within the government and Hollywood elites and that President Donald Trump is fighting a holy war against them.

Meredith told The AJC at the time that he had put up the QAnon billboard because he was “a patriot among the millions who love this country.”

According to Fulton County records, Meredith’s ex-wife filed for divorce in 2019.

Hiawassee Police Chief Paul Smith said Meredith moved to the area about two years ago. As soon as he moved into town, Meredith’s parents alerted the department to their son’s QAnon beliefs and said his behavior had recently changed. Smith reported that information to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Smith said he lived in a town house in Lake Chatuge and kept to himself. He did not have any run-ins with police there.

Meredith’s parents told the police department that their son moved to Clay County, N.C. last month.

Information from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was used in this report

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