(PatriotWise.com) — Justice Department officials on Monday said they were investigating dozens of threats made against election workers and have so far brought charges against 20 people, NBC News reported.
In a press conference highlighting two recent convictions, US Attorney for the District of Arizona Gary Restaino described election officials as “the first responders of democracy” and vowed that the Justice Department would continue investigating and prosecuting those who threaten them.
Of the 20 individuals charged, 13 have been convicted, and 10 of those have been sentenced. Seven have been sentenced to over 18 months in prison, according to John Keller, the head of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force.
Keller said in recent years, election officials have been “scapegoated, targeted, and attacked,” which has caused a depletion of “experienced election officials” to administer US elections.
In recent days, two individuals were sentenced for threatening former Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs following the 2020 presidential election.
On Monday, Ohio resident Joshua Russell was the latest to be sentenced for threatening Hobbs.
According to the Justice Department, Russell left threatening voicemails to the Secretary of State’s office, warning Hobbs that she would either be “behind bars” or “we will see you to the grave.”
Russell accused Hobbs of being a “traitor to this nation” and warned that she would suffer the consequences.
A judge sentenced Russell to two and a half years in prison.
Two weeks earlier, Massachusetts resident James Clark was sentenced to 42 months in prison for sending a bomb threat to Katie Hobbs’ office in 2021.
In a message sent through the Secretary of State’s Election Division website, Clark told Hobbs to resign by February 16, 2021, or he would set off a bomb. Clark also conducted online searches for information about the Boston Marathon bombing and to find the home address of the then-Secretary of State.
Most of the threats investigated by the FBI do not rise to the level of a crime, Restaino said. For a threat to be considered criminally actionable, the communication would have to include “a serious expression” that the sender intends to “commit an act of violence.”
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