REUTERS
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 donated to ActBlue, a left-leaning political action committee, dozens of times, most recently in July.
“We allege that the defendant made repeated, heinous threats to murder and torture Supreme Court Justices and their families to retaliate against them for decisions he disagreed with,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear. Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families,” Garland added.
Anastasiou is staring down 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce and nine counts of threats against a federal judge.
If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum of 155 years behind bars.
The announcement of Anastasiou’s arrest and indictment comes just days after a second attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump, which was foiled by an alert Secret Service agent doing an advance patrol of Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.
Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh is currently being held on a pair of federal weapons charges and will make his next appearance in West Palm Beach federal court Monday.
Supreme Court justices have not been immune from assassination bids amid the political turbulence.
In June 2022, authorities foiled a plot by Nicholas Roske to murder Kavanaugh after the high court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
Roske was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland home with a Glock pistol, pepper spray, a hammer, a screwdriver, a crowbar, a tactical knife, two magazines of ammunition, and more.
The would-be assassin is expected to stand trial beginning in June 2025.
A Supreme Court spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.