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An Ohio man who threatened to kill Katie Hobbs in 2022 when she was secretary of state in Arizona and working to be governor was sentenced Monday to 2 and a half years in jail, prosecutors introduced.
The person, Joshua Russell, 46, of Ohio, pleaded responsible in U.S. District Courtroom in Arizona in August to 1 rely of constructing an interstate risk, in accordance with the Justice Division. He was indicted in December 2022 on costs that he had left a number of voice messages containing dying threats with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Workplace through the midterm election season, wherein Ms. Hobbs was elected governor.
Ms. Hobbs, a Democrat, was secretary of state in Arizona and was the state’s high election official when Joe Biden’s 2020 victory there was licensed. She was not named in court docket paperwork, however a letter filed in court docket final week on Mr. Russell’s behalf was addressed to her.
Within the letter, Mr. Russell apologized to Ms. Hobbs and stated that he was being handled for anger and drug and alcohol abuse, which he cited as a consider making the threats.
“Social media and information stories (that I didn’t know in the event that they had been true or false) turned one other habit for me, and solely fueled my despair, anxiousness and anger,” Mr. Russell wrote.
The governor’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Monday evening, and Mr. Russell’s public defenders couldn’t instantly be reached.
Mr. Russell’s sentence was a results of the Justice Division’s broader effort to prosecute individuals who threatened and intimidated election officers within the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
Fueled by conspiracy theories and lies peddled by former President Donald J. Trump claiming that fraud had misplaced him the election, ballot staff and election officers skilled a surge in threats.
Ms. Hobbs has stated that she acquired 1000’s of threats for certifying the state’s voting leads to that election. One man pleaded responsible final yr to threatening Ms. Hobbs with a bomb in 2021 and was later sentenced to 3 and a half years in jail.
Mr. Russell threatened Ms. Hobbs in 2022 throughout a midterm election season that ended with Ms. Hobbs’s successful the governor’s race over her Republican opponent, Kari Lake.
In a single message left on the day of the state’s main in August 2022, Mr. Russell referred to as Ms. Hobbs a communist and accused her of getting dedicated fraud within the 2020 election by certifying Mr. Biden’s victory.
“You’re an enemy of the US — you’re a traitor to this nation,” Mr. Russell stated within the expletive laden message, including, “America’s coming for you, and you’ll pay along with your life.” The subsequent month, he left one other message threatening to kill her if the upcoming midterm election outcomes didn’t end in her prosecution.
Lastly, on Nov. 17, 2022, the day after The Related Press referred to as the governor’s race for Ms. Hobbs, Mr. Russell left one other message saying that she had simply signed her personal “dying warrant.”
By the tip of the 2022, investigators had tracked the messages to a cellphone in Bucyrus, Ohio, belonging to Mr. Russell. Investigators discovered {that a} cellphone quantity utilized by Mr. Russell listed “death4pelosi@gmail.com” as a restoration electronic mail deal with, in accordance with a press release of possible trigger that an F.B.I. agent, Nathaniel D. Gena, filed inside a grievance.
In a press release on Monday, Merrick B. Garland, the U.S. legal professional normal, reaffirmed his company’s dedication to taking up comparable instances.
“For those who threaten violence in opposition to the general public servants who administer our elections, there shall be penalties,” Mr. Garland stated.
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