20 have been charged for threatening election workers around the country: Feds

Since 2020, the Department of Justice’s coordinated efforts to prosecute people who have threatened election officials have resulted in the indictment of 20 people, the department announced. announced Monday.

The news comes as Arizona prosecutors made an announcement. sentencing The case involves a man who threatened to kill Governor Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.), who previously served as Arizona’s secretary of state, in 2022.

Arizona’s top prosecutor, Gary Restaino, said at a news conference that more than six of the 20 charges resulted in sentences of more than a year in prison.

“We must learn from these cases not to take or try to take the rule of law into our own hands,” he said.

The Department of Justice’s Election Threats Task Force was established in 2021 to respond to threats related to 2020 election denialism. The idea that the 2020 and 2022 elections were “rigged” was popular among the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party and was quickly taken up by former President Trump and other prominent politicians, but It still remains strong among Americans in the area.

This idea is especially strong in Arizona. In Arizona, after a long vote counting process, the battleground state was decided to go to President Biden in 2020, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is running for the state Senate, said that Hobbs was fraudulent in the 2022 election. He claimed to have won.

Task Force Director John Dixon Keller said the majority of the thousands of tips received do not lead to criminal cases, but are still important to preserving the integrity of the election.

“Death threats are not up for debate. Death threats do not contribute to the marketplace of ideas,” he said. “Death threats are not a constitutional right.”

In Monday’s case, Joshua Russell was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for making multiple telephone death threats against Hobbs.

Mr. Russell left three voicemails with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office threatening Mr. Hobbs’ life from the day of the 2022 Arizona primary until the general election.

“You are an enemy of the United States and a traitor to this country. And you had better stop talking about your words.”[inaudible]your [expletive] Things are going well, these are your days. [inaudible] According to the Justice Department, Russell said in his first message: “America is coming for you, and you will pay with your life, you communists.” [expletive] traitor [expletive]”

Attorney General Merrick Garland reiterated in a statement that he will continue to target those who threaten election officials.

“There will be consequences for threatening violence against public officials administering elections,” Garland said in a statement. “The right to vote, a cornerstone of our democracy, depends on election officials and election officials being able to do their jobs without fear for their lives. The Department of Justice will continue to aggressively pursue those who threaten these public servants. We will investigate and prosecute.”