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, but many were delivered in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision carving out broad criminal immunity for former President Trump.
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 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.
Anastasiou faces nine counts of threatening a federal judge and 13 counts of threats in interstate commerce. He pleaded not guilty.