The Justice Department revealed an indictment Friday charging a Florida man with threatening to kill his political opponent in 2021.
William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was charged with threatening two folks, one in every of whom the DOJ stated was his primary opponent within the 2022 election for Florida’s thirteenth Congressional District. Braddock allegedly threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make the primary opponent disappear, in accordance to the indictment.
The DOJ indictment didn't identify the alleged victims.
One of Braddock’s primary opponents and the race’s eventual winner, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., contended in 2021 court docket paperwork that Braddock was stalking her and needed her useless.
A Florida court docket in 2021 granted Luna and a conservative activist and good friend of hers, Erin Olszewski, a short lived restraining order.
Braddock terminated his marketing campaign in 2021 shortly after the decide granted the injunction.
NBC News couldn't instantly attain Braddock for touch upon Saturday. It is unclear whether or not Braddock has entered a plea.
A spokesperson for Luna informed NBC News her workplace couldn't touch upon the case however stated the congresswoman has “faced a growing number of death threats” within the final month, which the spokesperson stated pointed to a “broader and more disturbing issue of violence in the political arena.”
An lawyer for Olszewski didn't instantly reply to requests for remark Saturday afternoon.
Braddock informed the Pinellas County decide in 2021 he opposed the injunction and needed to “obtain, review and validate” proof offered towards him, saying he didn’t “know what they have.”
After allegedly making the threats, Braddock fled the nation and was later discovered to be residing within the Philippines, in accordance to the DOJ. He was then deported to the U.S. and made his first court docket look Thursday in Los Angeles, per the DOJ information launch.
Braddock is charged with one depend of interstate transmission of a real risk to injure one other particular person, for which he may face a most of 5 years in jail if convicted, the DOJ stated.
The case is a part of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, convened in 2021 to handle threats focusing on election staff. The FBI’s Tampa area workplace is investigating the case with help from the St. Petersburg Police Department, the DOJ stated.
Luna is up for re-election on Nov. 5. The Republican primary for her seat in August was canceled after Luna was the one candidate to qualify.
