A Democrat donor was arrested this week for allegedly threatening to murder six U.S. Supreme Court Justices and some of their family members.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that 76-year-old Panos Anastasiou sent more than 465 messages to the Supreme Court through a public website run by the court.
The messages — sent from March 10, 2023, through July 16, 2024 — “escalated to messages intending to threaten harm toward the victims,” the DOJ said. “The messages contained violent, racist, and homophobic rhetoric coupled with threats of assassination by torture, hanging, and firearms.”
Court documents said the threats were “intended to intimidate Supreme Court Justices 1-6 and retaliate against them for official actions Supreme Court Justices 1-6 had taken in their official capacity as federal judges.”
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Prosecutors did not name the justices who were the targets of the threats, but it is worth noting that of the nine justices on the Supreme Court, six are conservative judges.
Prosecutors charged Anastasiou with nine counts of making threats against federal judges and 13 counts of making threats via interstate commerce. If convicted on all counts, Anastasiou faces up to 155 years in prison — 10 years per count for threatening judges and five years per count for making threats via interstate commerce.
“We allege that the defendant made repeated, heinous threats to murder and torture Supreme Court Justices and their families to retaliate against them for decisions he disagreed with,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear. Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families.”
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Anastasiou had donated 82 times to various left-wing causes and Democrat candidates dozens of times on the Democrats’ fundraising platform ActBlue.
Per FEC records, Panos Anastasiou, the Alaska man who threatened the six unidentified Supreme Court justices, made a number of small contributions via ActBlue to an assortment of Democratic candidates and committees.https://t.co/xYnWCPsvh7 https://t.co/wMzCHHpvIs pic.twitter.com/xpdmNk2D0d
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) September 19, 2024