A Nevada man accused of sending blunt death threats to federal judges, state officials and a member of Congress over the past eight months — vitriol one prosecutor likened to “the Holocaust” — was ordered detained pending trial by a magistrate judge who agreed the suspect was too dangerous to remain free, Politico reports. The startling criminal case unveiled this week against Spencer Gear, 32, is a stark illustration of the atmosphere of threats enveloping the federal judiciary, as well as for state judges and other officials handling cases against former President Trump. Prosecutors say Gear targeted five federal judges in Washington, D.C. He’s also accused of threatening U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw two civil trials against Trump in suits brought by a writer accusing him of sexual assault, and New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s criminal hush money trial in Manhattan. Gear is accused of an extraordinary spree of violent threats and misogynistic profanity. Prosecutors say he left voicemail messages accusing the officials of corruption and declaring that they would soon be executed.
“This defendant is a ticking time bomb,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Operskalski at a bail hearing for Gear in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “His words are reminiscent of the Holocaust as he dehumanizes his victims, calling them filth, calling them trash.” Operskalski said many of Gear’s messages were replete with “violent misogyny” and included a message to a federal judge repeatedly disparaging her for her gender and culminating in a threat. “You are a woman. You have to have men do things for you …You can’t do shit to Donald Trump unless you send a man to do it,” Gear said in the message. “If you keep trying to fight this war against liberty, you will be dead.” Operskalski did not identify any of the targets of Gear’s threats by name in court Wednesday, and the 22-count indictment references them by their initials. They include five district court judges in Washington — Beryl Howell, Reggie Walton, Christopher Cooper, Jia Cobb and Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. All of the district court judges cited have handled criminal cases stemming from the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Commenti