Defendant Dusan Mladen filed this appeal from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut after his plea of guilty before Jeffrey A. Meyer, Judge, convicting him on one count of making false statements to a federal official, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1001, and sentencing him to five years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, a $20,000 fine, and the mandatory $100 special assessment, see id. §3013(a)(2)(A). Mladen appealed, arguing only that there were substantive and procedural errors in connection with sentencing and that his sentence was unreasonable. The appeal was argued in October 2019 and has remained pending. On February 10, 2020, Mladen’s counsel notified this Court that on February 8, 2020, Mladen died. On this basis, counsel has moved for abatement of all incidents of the prosecution, requesting that the appeal be dismissed without a decision on the merits, that Mladen’s judgment of conviction be vacated, and that the matter be remanded to the district court with instructions to dismiss the indictment and order repayment to Mladen’s estate of the $20,000 fine and $100 special assessment. The government opposes so much of the motion as seeks abatement of Mladen’s conviction and the $100 special assessment. Because Mladen was convicted upon his plea of guilty, and he neither did nor was permitted to challenge on appeal the merits of his conviction, we deny as without merit so much of the motion as seeks (1) vacatur of Mladen’s conviction, (2) dismissal of the count of the indictment on which he was convicted, and (3) repayment of the mandatory $100 special assessment; we grant so much of the motion as requests dismissal of this appeal and a remand to the district court for vacatur of the imposed terms of imprisonment and supervised release and for an order requiring that the paid fine of $20,000 be repaid to Mladen’s estate. The motion is granted in part and denied in part; the appeal is dismissed. AMALYA KEARSE, C.J. Defendant Dusan Mladen filed this appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut entered after his plea of guilty before Jeffrey A. Meyer, Judge, convicting him on one count of making false statements to a federal official, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1001, and sentencing him to 60 months’ imprisonment, a three-year term of supervised release, a fine of $20,000, and the mandatory $100 special assessment, see id. §3013(a)(2)(A). Mladen appealed, arguing only that there were substantive and procedural errors in connection with sentencing and that his sentence was unreasonable. The appeal was argued in October 2019 and has remained pending. On February 10, 2020, Mladen’s counsel notified this Court that on February 8, 2020, Mladen died. On this basis, counsel has moved for abatement of all proceedings against Mladen (“Abatement Motion” or “Motion”), requesting that the appeal be dismissed without a decision on the merits, that Mladen’s judgment of conviction be vacated, and that the matter be remanded to the district court with instructions to dismiss the indictment, order repayment of the fine and special assessment paid by Mladen, and abate all other incidents of the prosecution. The government opposes so much of the Motion as seeks abatement of Mladen’s conviction and the mandatory $100 special assessment. Because Mladen was convicted upon his plea of guilty, and he neither did nor was permitted to challenge on appeal the merits of his conviction, we deny as without merit so much of the Abatement Motion as seeks (1) vacatur of Mladen’s conviction, (2) dismissal of the count of the indictment on which he was convicted, and (3) repayment of the $100 special assessment mandated for an individual upon his conviction of a felony. We deny as moot so much of the Motion as requests dismissal of the remainder of the indictment, which has already been dismissed. We grant so much of the Motion as seeks vacatur of the imposed terms of imprisonment and supervised release, return of the $20,000 paid fine, and dismissal of the appeal. I. BACKGROUND In a two-count indictment filed in July 2017, Mladen was charged with threatening to assault a federal judge (“the Judge”) before whom he was a litigant, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §115(a)(1)(B) (“Count One”), and making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of a department or agency of the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1001, by falsely claiming, inter alia, that he had not telephoned the Judge, had not gone to the Judge’s house, and had not threatened the Judge (“Count Two”). On October 13, 2017, Mladen and the government entered into a written plea agreement (“Plea Agreement” or “Agreement”), and Mladen pleaded guilty to Count Two of the indictment. A. Mladen’s Count-Two Admissions in the Plea Agreement As part of the Plea Agreement, Mladen acknowledged that until late July 2017 he was a litigant in a matter pending before the Judge, and he stipulated to the following Count-Two offense conduct, inter alia: (a) in early July, Mladen placed an unsigned, handwritten note in the mailbox at the Judge’s home, telling the Judge to “BACK OF[F],” and stating “JUST WARNING FOR NOW” (Plea Agreement at 10, 3 (internal quotation marks omitted)); (b) on July 10, from his home, Mladen placed a call to the Judge’s home telephone number, which was automatically forwarded to the Judge’s personal cell phone and was answered by the Judge; (c) in that call, Mladen refused to identify himself but said, inter alia, that he “had visited the Judge’s house the previous week” (id. 4), and “I left a message for you” (id. (internal quotation marks omitted)). Mladen stipulated that on July 11 he was interviewed by United States Deputy Marshals and that in that interview he, inter alia, (a) denied having telephoned the Judge, (b) denied even knowing the Judge’s telephone number, and (c) denied having gone to the Judge’s house. In the Plea Agreement, Mladen admitted that each of these denials was false, that “[e]ach of these statements was material,” and that he willfully made these statements, knowing that they were false. (Id.
