Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, confirmed Wednesday he is one of two previously unidentified senators who received death threats related to the confirmation Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Speaking to the Westside Conservative Club in Iowa, Grassley revealed he is "Senator-1" referenced in a criminal complaint unsealed in the federal court's Eastern District of New York.

The Department of Justice announced Friday that is had charged Ronald DeRisi with threatening to murder and assault two U.S. senators in response to their support of Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

According to the Des Moines Register, Grassley told the Iowa crowd his reasoning behind maintaining his silence on the matter until now.

"My staff told me, 'you are not supposed to ever say that you had your life threatened. You are just Sen. No. 1, as far as the court documents are concerned,'" Grassley said. He added that he is only now speaking about the incident because it was made public over the weekend.

Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court earlier this month by a vote of 50-48 in the Senate, the smallest margin in 137 years. During the tense confirmation process, protesters swarmed Grassley's office chanting, "We believe Christine Ford" during the confirmation process.