A Colorado man has been arrested on federal charges of death threats against election officials on right-wing social media sites, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
Teak Brockbank, 45, used right-leaning social media sites Gab and Rumble to post threats against election officials in Colorado and Arizona in the months leading up to the midterm elections, federal authorities said. He was also accused of threatening a state judge in Colorado and federal agents investigating his case, authorities said in a news release.
The threats were posted in 2021 and 2022.
In one such post, an account believed to be Brockbank's wrote of one election official in 2021, “I live in Communist Colorado and this Crazed liberal and many others in Communist Colorado needs to- No has to Hang she has to Hang by the neck till she is Dead Dead Dead.”
In another such post in 2022, he was accused of writing: “Once those people start getting put to death then the rest will melt like snowflakes and turn on each other … This is the only way. So those of us that have the stomach for what has to be done should prepare our minds for what we all [a]re going to do!!!!!! It is time.”
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At least one of the people targeted by these threats was Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
Gab in particular is a notorious haven for neo-Nazism; the gunman who committed the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh posted about his plans to the site beforehand.
Far-right murder and terroristic threats have become more frequent and have prompted state and federal responses.
During former President Donald Trump's criminal trial and conviction in Manhattan, District Attorney Alvin Bragg received a deluge of threats, including people who warned "we will kill you all" and "your life is done."
