Alaska man charged with threatening to torture and kill Supreme Court justices

WASHINGTON – An Alaska man has been charged with making "heinous" threats to torture and kill six Supreme Court justices and some of their family members.

Panos Anastasiou, 76, was arrested Wednesday in Anchorage, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

Prosecutors said he sent more than 465 messages to the Supreme Court through its public website, some of which contained violent, racist and homophobic rhetoric coupled with threats of assassination by torture, hanging and firearms.

“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 B. Garland said in a statement. “Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families.”

More: Supreme Court wants $19.4 million in new funds to protect the justices and their homes

Garland did not say which justices were targeted. There are six justices appointed by Republican presidents who often side together when the court is split along ideological lines.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court asked Congress for an extra $19.4 million for security to deal with “evolving risks” and a change in how the justices’ homes are protected.

Increased funds are needed in party to allow the Supreme Court Police to take over around the clock protection of the justices’ residences from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts wrote in its budget request to Congress.

More: Biden administration proposes $38 million for judicial security after Supreme Court protests

In 2022, Garland tapped the Marshals Services to provide 24-hour security for the justices amid a flood of threats and protests that followed a leaked draft of the opinion that would overturn the landmark abortion decision Roe v. Wade.

President Joe Biden signed into law a bill quickly passed by Congress to expand security protections for the justices' families.

At a judicial conference earlier this month, Justice Amy Coney Barrett described her son’s discovery that she had been wearing a bulletproof vest.

Barrett did not explain the reason for the protection. But a Nevada man awaiting trial for his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot allegedly threatened Barrett in June after she dissented from the court’s decision to limit how prosecutors can charge Jan. 6 defendants.

Bradley Nelson allegedly posted on social media an image of Barrett with the comment that someone should cut her throat “from ear to ear,” according to a judicial order.

In June of 2022, a California man who allegedly made threats against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was arrested near the justice's suburban Washington, D.C. home while armed with a gun and knife. He has pleaded not guilty.

In December, a Florida man pled guilty to threatening to kill Roberts.

In the Alaska case, Anastasiou is charged with nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count of threatening a judge and five years for each count related to interstate commerce.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alaska man charged with threatening to kill Supreme Court justices