FBI agents arrested a Texas man Friday on charges that he posted an Internet message threatening the life of Georgia state election officials.
Chad Christopher Stark, 54, of the Austin suburb of Leander, was charged with communicating an interstate threat in a message posted on Craigslist a year ago.
The message was posted with the subject line Georgia Patriots It's time to kill a state election official, whose name was not mentioned in court documents. It's time to invoke our Second Amendment right. We're going to work our way down to another official, the local and federal corrupt judges, according to court documents.
The post also mentioned a third official and said we need to pay a visit to her and her family and put a bullet behind her ears. The charge was filed by the Justice Department's Election Threats Task Force, which was formed in June with the mission of addressing threats of violence against election workers.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors that there is no First Amendment right to unlawfully threaten to harm or kill someone. The Justice Department will continue to do all it can to hold accountable those who target public servants with violence. John Keller, a lawyer in the Justice Department's public integrity section, said threats against election officials have traditionally been considered a matter for local officials but that view has changed because of the surge in threats following the 2020 presidential election.
Before the task force was formed, federal prosecutors charged a New Hampshire woman, Katelyn Jones, with sending threatening messages to a state election official in Michigan. The texts included graphic threats to the official's daughter.
In March, Jones's trial is scheduled to begin. She is charged with a maximum sentence of five years in prison for sending an interstate threat, which is carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.