Federal authorities arrested an Alaska man on Wednesday for allegedly threatening to torture and assassinate six Supreme Court justices and multiple family members in messages sent through the court’s website.
Prosecutors say Panos Anastasiou, 76, levied the threats over the course of about six months, and court documents reveal that some appear to respond to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision carving out broad criminal immunity for former President Trump.
Although the targets are not identified by name, they appear to include Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, two of the court’s leading conservatives. Trump himself also appears to be threatened in at least two purported messages.
In one alleged message sent less than two hours after the July 1 decision, Anastasiou threatened to torture and execute six unnamed justices by “assassination,” according to the indictment. He allegedly sent a similar message that evening.
Two days later, he made a threat to behead the six justices, prosecutors allege, which was purportedly followed the next day with a threat of drowning, shooting, strangling and “lynching” the six jurists.
Prosecutors say Anastasiou began sending messages through the Supreme Court’s website as early as March 2023 and started including threats this past January. More than 465 messages were sent in total, according to the indictment, and some allegedly targeted justices’ family members.
Alito appears to have received multiple violent threats in May as he came under public controversy for a flag connected to the “Stop the Steal” movement that flew at his home. One of the alleged messages appears to also levy racist threats against Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist.
Anastasiou faces nine counts of threatening a federal judge and 13 counts of threats in interstate commerce. He pleaded not guilty.
“We allege that the defendant made repeated, heinous threats to murder and torture Supreme Court Justices and their families to retaliate against them for decisions he disagreed with,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear. Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families,” he added.
Anastasiou made his first court appearance on Wednesday and remains in custody at least until a detention hearing scheduled for later Thursday.
His public defender declined to comment.
The grand jury returned the indictment just days after authorities began investigating a man for apparently attempting to assassinate Trump at one of his Florida golf courses Sunday.
And it comes amid increased concerns about the protection of Supreme Court justices.
A man accused of attempting to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh two years ago by showing up outside his home with a firearm is set to go to trial next June.
In April, another defendant was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment for threatening to kill Chief Justice John Roberts. And another man faces charges after allegedly attempting to carjack Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s security detail stationed outside her home, though there is no evidence suggesting the defendant realized who he was targeting.