Supreme Court Justices Receive Hundreds of Threatening Messages From Alaska Resident

An elderly Alaska man was arrested for sending violent, racist, and homophobic messages to the Supreme Court, threatening to kill six members and their families.The Department of Justice alleges that Panos Anastasiou, 76, fired off nearly 500 missives directly to The Nine on a public website maintained by the Supreme Court, according to a DOJ press release.“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 Garland said. “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.”Mr. Anastasiou was arrested at Anchorage Wednesday and charged with nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and another 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. If convicted, he could face a maximum total of up to ten years for threats against each judge and an additional five years for each count related to interstate commerce. The threatening messages began on January 4 and included violent, racist, and homophobic rhetoric, according to court filings.In one of his first messages, Mr. Anastasiou is alleged to have threatened to murder one of the Supreme Court justices along with an unidentified former president, saying that he would like to see the pair “hanging together from an oak tree” and that he would “gladly provide the rope and pull the handle,” according to CBS News. It’s presumed the former president is Trump, since other messages sent by Mr. Anastasiou referred to him as a “convicted criminal.”Legal documents highlight another message sent on May 10 in which he hurled a racial slur toward the same justice and threatened to kill that person by “lynching.” In July, he sent another message saying that the judges should “be AFRAID, very AFRAID to leave their home and fear for their lives every day.”The justices who were threatened were not named in the charges, but the Supreme Court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority.In June 2022, Justice Brett Kavanaugh received unrelated death threats after a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to the public. Nicholas Roske of California was charged with one count of attempting to assassinate a Supreme Court justice after he was nabbed near the judge’s home at Chevy Chase, Maryland with a gun, a knife, zip ties, and burglary tools. Roske was arrested after he called 911 and told the dispatcher that he wanted to commit suicide. It’s alleged that he told a detective during booking that he was upset about the overturning of Roe and believed Justice Kavanaugh would roll back gun control laws.Roske has been in prison for two years after failing to sign plea agreements. His trial is scheduled to begin in June of next year.

Supreme Court Justices Receive Hundreds of Threatening Messages From Alaska Resident

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