The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it had arrested and charged a Texan man for allegedly making death threats to election-related government officials in Georgia.
Chad Christopher Stark, a 54-year-old man from Leander, was arrested by the FBI and charged with one count of passing on interstate threats, the federal agency said in a statement. This is the first known criminal case brought by the DOJ Election Threats Task Force, which began work in July 2021.
According to the indictment, Stark posted a message on the advertising website Craigslist titled “It’s time to kill the Georgia Patriots.” There were at least three unnamed representatives of the Georgian election commissions in the post.
“It’s time to kill [Official A] Chinese agent – $ 10,000, ”the message says. “The time has come to apply our Second Amendment, it is time to put a bullet in the treacherous Chinese [Official A]”.
“Then we go down to [Official B] local and federal corrupt judges,” it continues, concluding that after the dismissal of “Officer B,” it is time to “pay a visit [Official C] and her family as well and put a bullet to her [sic] behind the ears,” the indictment quoted him as saying.
It is not immediately clear who the government officials were, whom the Justice Department’s indictment says Stark identified as “traitor-traitors”, making them his “targets”.
Stark also seems to be particularly frustrated with the Democratic Party-sponsored street militia, Black Lives Matter and Antifa, saying violent militia groups are responsible for much destruction in the United States, blaming the authorities for nothing more than “[standing] down and watch” how they destroyed cities and killed the townspeople.
“Let’s be crystal clear to our local law enforcement who are stopping by and watching BLM. [and] Antifa is destroying our country and killing our citizens, but will you stand up to stop the Patriots, wear masks and shut down American businesses??? The prosecution cites Stark’s words.
The suspect was scheduled to appear Friday at a federal courthouse in Austin, Texas, before U.S. Justice of the Peace Susan Hightower.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Stark’s arrest confirms the agency’s commitment to justice “against those who choose to threaten violence against anyone who participates in our elections.”
“Voting workers who seek to protect our right to a fair and democratic process deserve nothing less than maximum security and the assurance that they can carry out their functions without hindrance,” Ray said.
The case is one of “dozens” of such cases currently under federal investigation, said Kenneth A. Polit, Jr., assistant attorney general for the department’s Criminal Division. Federal officials declined to elaborate on Polite’s statement about “dozens” of open election threat investigations.
The latest indictment brought by the task force is only the second known federal charge of threatening election officials since the 2020 vote. In December 2020, federal prosecutors charged a New Hampshire woman with threatening a Michigan official.
The task force’s indictment of Stark “sends a critical message that threats against a member of the election commission or an employee will be seen as a threat to our democracy,” said Matt Masterson, a Republican who has led election security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2018. by 2020. .
contributed to this report.
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