An Alaska man has been charged with threatening six Supreme Court justices and at least two members of their families. Panos Anastasiou, 76, of Anchorage, was arrested Wednesday on a federal indictment charging him with nine counts of threatening a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. .
Law enforcement officials have reported a recent spate of violent threats against judges and other public figures involved in high-profile cases, Politico reports. Over the past year, prosecutors have charged defendants with making death threats against three judges overseeing cases involving Donald Trump. The case against Anastasiou stands out for the volume of messages allegedly involved: more than 465 to the high court through its website between March 2023 and July 2024.
Many alleged threats were crude and racist, repeatedly using variants of the word “n----r” and making reference to lynching. The justices and their family members targeted were not named in the indictment. The court has two Black justices: Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “The messages contained violent, racist, and homophobic rhetoric coupled with threats of assassination via torture, hanging, and firearms, and encouraged others to participate in the acts of violence,” the indictment says. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families.” Anastasiou described himself as a Vietnam veteran and referred to a negative experience with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. prosecutors said Anastasiou has a history of making similar threats “to the governor of another state.” They were not identified.
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