New York court worker arrested, accused of threats related to inauguration

A New York court worker was arrested Tuesday on a complaint that he made threats toward President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration and other Democratic politicians.

Brendan Hunt, who works for the New York State Office of Court Administration and is a part-time filmmaker and actor, was arrested after a criminal complaint was filed against him in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Monday. He is accused of threatening Democratic politicians, including Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.).

One of the threats Hunt allegedly made was on Jan. 12 on Parler. He was responding to another user when Hunt wrote “exactly, enough with the ‘trust the plan’ bullshit. lets go, jan 20, bring your guns #millionmilitiamarch,” according to the complaint. Biden’s inauguration is Wednesday and security measures have increased since the Capitol riot earlier this month.

The complaint says Hunt posted another threat through a video on Bitchute reportedly titled “KILL YOUR SENATORS” with a summary that said, “Slaughter them all.” The video was posted Jan. 8, just two days after the Capitol riot. Some of the rioters reportedly had plans to go after Vice President Pence after he said he wouldn’t go along with President Trump’s plan to stop the certification of electoral votes.

“[O]ur government at this point is basically a handful of traitors … so what you need to do is take up arms, get to D.C., probably the inauguration … so called inauguration of this motherf—— communist Joe Biden … [T]hat’s probably the best time to do this, get your guns, show up to D.C., and literally just spray these motherf——,” Hunt said, the complaint alleges.

“We need to go back to the U.S. Capitol when all of the Senators and a lot of the Representatives are back there, and this time we have to show up with our guns. And we need to slaughter these motherf——,” Hunt is quoted in the complaint as saying. “If anybody has a gun, give me it, I’ll go there myself and shoot them and kill them.”

The last threat mentioned in the complaint reportedly occurred on Dec. 6. Hunt allegedly posted on Facebook that he wanted Trump to “hold a public execution of pelosi aoc schumer etc” or else “the citizenry will,” referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). The complaint alleges Hunt claimed the election was rigged and told Trump to “Start up the firing squads, mow down these commies, and lets take america back!”

When reached for comment by The Hill, New York State Unified Court spokesman Lucian Chalfen said Hunt has “been suspended without pay pending further administrative action.”

Chalfen said Hunt is an assistant court analyst in the Attorney Registration Unit, and that the NYPD/FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force contacted court officials on Tuesday morning to inform them of Hunt’s arrest.

The FBI has made dozens of arrests in the past two weeks since the Capitol riot, and authorities also arrested a Chicago man last week, charging him with making threats toward Biden’s inauguration.

Washington, D.C., has taken many security precautions ahead of the inauguration, including shutting down roads, some metro stops and bridges and having thousands of National Guard troops present.

Updated on Jan. 20 at 10:19 a.m.