Minneapolis man pleads guilty to mailing threat to mosque

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minneapolis man has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime for writing and mailing a threatening letter to a mosque.

The U.S. Department of Justice says 57-year-old Daniel George Fisher entered his plea Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright accepted Fisher's plea.

According to the guilty plea, in September 2015 Fisher wrote and mailed an anonymous letter threatening to blow up the Tawfiq Islamic Center in Minneapolis. Authorities say Fisher later admitted to the FBI that he wrote the letter to scare and intimidate the mosque's Muslim members.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger says threatening to blow up a mosque "is simply un-American."

Fisher faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he's sentenced.