OAN’s Taylor Tinsley
11:38 AM PT – Tuesday, May 14, 2024
As the 2024 election cycle approaches, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray are issuing clear warnings.
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Two leaders of the agency warned of the potential threat at Monday’s Election Threat Task Force meeting.
Garland said the Department of Justice (DOJ) will find and hold accountable those who threaten to harm or kill election workers.
“Public officials who administer elections must be able to perform their duties without fear for their safety or the safety of their families,” the attorney general said. We will aggressively investigate and prosecute those who threaten election officials. ”
The task force was created in June 2021 after threats against election workers began to spike after the 2020 election.
More than a dozen people were indicted across the country.
Mr Garland read out a series of cases in the past where people had made threats and subsequently been jailed for up to three-and-a-half years.
A Texas man was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for “threatening the lives of election workers and their children in Arizona and advocating mass shootings of poll workers and election workers,” while a Texas man was sentenced to two years in prison. He was sentenced to one and a half years. Iowa “threatened to lynch Arizona’s election official.”
Recent investigation carried out by brennan justice center We found that more than one in three local election workers have experienced intimidation, harassment, or abuse.
“The work that election workers do to ensure our elections are free and fair is more important than ever. We want our election workers to be free from threats of violence and intimidation. We are committed to doing our part to ensure that we can do that job,” FBI Director Wray said. .
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