James Clark, 40, a Massachusetts resident, has been sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison for making an online threat to bomb then-Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ election office in February 2021, the Associated Press reports. “Those using illegal threats of violence to intimidate election workers should know that the Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable,” U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland said.
In August, James Clark, 40, of Falmouth, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Phoenix to sending a communication containing a bomb threat to an election official. Clark’s threat was one of many made against Hobbs, a Democrat, after she certified the 2020 presidential election that then-Republican President Donald Trump claimed without evidence had been stolen. The FBI arrested Clark in 2022 after tracing a message sent through an online form maintained by the secretary of state’s election department. It warned that Hobbs had to resign “or the explosive device impacted in her personal space will be detonated.” Hobbs is now governor of Arizona; she was elected in 2023.
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