Alaska man charged with threats to torture, murder conservative Supreme Court justices
An Alaska man has been charged with threatening to torture and murder six Supreme Court justices — including two of the high court’s best-known conservatives — as well as their relatives, the Justice Department revealed Thursday.Panos Anastasiou, 76, was nabbed Wednesday in Anchorage and is facing 22 federal charges stemming from 465 alarming messages he sent via the Supreme Court’s website between March 10 and July 16, prosecutors say.The justices are not identified in the indictment, but details about Anastasiou’s messages indicate he targeted Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.In one alleged message, sent May 17, Anastasiou said he wanted to drive by a justice’s house with fellow Vietnam War veterans and spray the property with AR-15 gunfire.“Hopefully N—– [Supreme Court Justice 1] and his white trailer trash n—– loving wife insurrectionist wife are visiting,” he wrote, according to the indictment.Thomas’ wife Ginni, who is white, has come under criticism for her support of Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him via voter fraud.
A day earlier, Anastasiou appeared to reference a New York Times report about an upside-down US flag being flown outside Alito’s northern Virginia home following the 2020 vote, writing: “I would have had NO reservations about walking up to [Supreme Court Justice 2] and not asking him to take it down but to put a BULLET in this mother f—-s [sic] head.”Another message, dated July 5, allegedly said, “We should make [Supreme Court Justices 1-6] be AFRAID very AFRAID to leave their home and fear for their lives everyday,” court records reveal.The Supreme Court is generally thought to have six conservative justices and three liberal justices, with the former roster consisting of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in addition to Thomas and Alito.Federal Election Commission records indicate that Anastasiou d...