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 individuals, considered one of whom the DOJ mentioned was his main opponent within the 2022 election for Florida’s thirteenth Congressional District. Braddock allegedly threatened to “name up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make the first opponent disappear, in keeping with the indictment.
The DOJ indictment didn’t identify the alleged victims.
One of Braddock’s main 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 wished her lifeless.
A Florida court docket in 2021 granted Luna and a conservative activist and buddy of hers, Erin Olszewski, a short lived restraining order.
Braddock terminated his marketing campaign in 2021 shortly after the choose 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 and an lawyer for Olszewski didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Saturday afternoon.
Braddock instructed the Pinellas County choose in 2021 he opposed the injunction and wished to “acquire, assessment and validate” proof offered in opposition to him, saying he didn’t “know what they’ve.”
After allegedly making the threats, Braddock fled the nation and was later discovered to be residing within the Philippines, in keeping with 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 menace to injure one other particular person, for which he may face a most of 5 years in jail if convicted, the DOJ mentioned.
The case is a part of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, convened in 2021 to handle threats concentrating on election staff. The FBI’s Tampa subject workplace is investigating the case with help from the St. Petersburg Police Department, the DOJ mentioned.
Luna is up for re-election on Nov. 5. The Republican main for her seat in August was canceled after Luna was the one candidate to qualify.