A man in Alaska has been arrested for allegedly threatening six justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Panos Anastasiou, 76, was arrested on Wednesday on nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and thirteen counts of making threats in interstate commerce.
“Beginning on or about January 4, 2024, Anastasio began sending messages intended to threaten harm and convey threats of harm towards Supreme Court Justices [and their family members],” the indictment filed by the Department of Justice reads.Â
United States Supreme Court (front row L-R) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (back row L-R) Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pose for their official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
It continues, “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 Alaskan man allegedly threatened one SCOTUS justice with allusions to “providing the rope” to “hang [them] from an Oak tree,” according to court documents.
Other specific threats against justices included claims of sending “fellow veterans” to “spray” their homes with gunfire, “hopefully killing” them, confronting them directly to “put a bullet in their head” and outlining schemes to kidnap them.Â
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Anastasiou also made specific threats of drowning, strangling, “lynching,” and beheading the various high judges.
The Department of Justice claims the suspect’s alleged threats continued for over a year, until July 16 of this year.Â
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He is accused of sending over 465 such messages, all through the contact form of the Supreme Court’s public website.
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Anastasiou appeared before Magistrate Judge Kyle Reardon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska on Wednesday.Â
Each count of threatening a federal judge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Each count of making threats to interstate commerce carries a maximum sentence of 5 years.