An Alaska man has been charged with sending a series of vile, profane messages through a public communications portal threatening the lives of six Supreme Court justices and their family members, the U.S. Justice Department announced this week.
“I don’t want to see these two corrupt mother f-ckers assassinated… I’d like to see them TORTURED worse than Kim Jung Un would torture his own family,” Anastasiou wrote in a message dated June 18, 2024, according to a criminal filing in Alaska’s federal district court. “You know, like putting electrodes up their ass and on their balls, needles under their finger nails, pulling their teeth with pliers, etc etc. Make these SCUMBAGS beg for their lives.”
In a follow-up message on July 1, Anastasiou wrote, “ASSASSINATING THESE C———S IS THE ONLY PANACEA.”
The Anchorage man sent 465 messages beginning in March 2023 and continuing through the middle of July, prosecutors allege. FBI agents even visited Anastasiou to discuss the threats, the filing states, but he wasn’t deterred. In one message he referenced the FBI interview before “daring” the Justices to personally visit his home.
“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.”
Though he did not name the justices, Anastasiou, through racial slurs and references to their spouses, appeared to identify at least two: Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
On May 10, 2024, he wrote: “Subject: N***** [Supreme Court Justice 1]”, “I’d like to see you have a real lynching and I’ll donate the tree and pull the lever… you worthless piece of n***** shit.”
One week later, he urged his fellow Vietnam veterans… “to drive by the [Supreme Court Justice 2]’s house with their AR15’s and when f–king [Supreme Court Justice 2] and his fucking PIECE OF SH-T C-NT WIFE are HOME spray the home of these disrespectful mother f-ckers with hundreds of rounds… hopefully killing these SCUMBAG COCKSUCKERS.”
The post was sent soon after the New York Times reported an upside-down American flag was flown outside Alito’s home in January 2021.
“Hopefully N***** [Supreme Court Justice 1] and his white trailer trash n***** loving insurrectionist wife are visiting,” Anastasiou wrote, according to the indictment.
The Anchorage Daily News reported a search of Anastasiou’s home this week turned up ammunition and a handgun he was prohibited from owning because he is a convicted felon, Anastasiou pleaded guilty more than 30 years ago to federal charges involving the distribution of cocaine, tax evasion, and falsely reporting his income, according to the paper.
On Thursday, a magistrate judge ordered Anastasiou, who has been diagnosed with throat cancer, released on bond if he agreed to be fitted with GPS monitoring and stop contacting those he had threatened.
Thomas, long a controversial figure on the court, has been the subject of particular criticism this year. In April, Atlanta Black Star News reported on the brewing firestorm over Thomas’ refusal to recuse himself from cases related to the Capitol riot despite his wife’s, Ginni Thomas, involvement in events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Earlier this year the Georgia-born justice was questioned after he hired a recent law school grad accused of racism while working for a major conservative nonprofit in 2017. Crystal Clayton, a 2022 graduate from George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, had allegedly sent a text message to a colleague that stated, “I hate Black people.”
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