Alaska man arrested for threatening to torture and assassinate six Supreme Court justices
An Alaska man has been arrested for threatening six Supreme Court justices and their families with torture and murder.
The Justice Department said Thursday that the man, identified as 76-year-old Panos Anastasiou, sent more than 464 messages through the court’s public website.
The messages, from March to July 2023, contained “violent, racist and homophobic rhetoric,” the complaint said. He also allegedly threatened to kill the judges through “torture, hanging and firearms.”
The man was arrested and charged with a total of 22 counts of making threats against a federal judge and through interstate commerce. He faces more than 100 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
It is unclear whether the justices being targeted are the six conservative justices whose opinions Anastasiou “disagreed” with. According to FEC records, he donated to ActBlue, a Democratic platform, as recently as July.
“We allege that the defendant repeatedly made horrific threats to kill and torture Supreme Court justices and their families in retaliation for decisions he disagreed with,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
According to his Facebook page, he has no friends and hasn’t posted anything in years.
His account contains only a profile photo and a 2014 post in which he calls Supreme Court justices “booted men.”
The Justice Department announced Thursday that the man sent more than 464 messages through the court’s public website
“I’m tired of these NAZI booted thugs murdering innocent and unarmed people,” he wrote.
“I served in Vietnam and I regret my service to the POLICE STATE we have become, in large part because of Supreme Court rulings that favored police tactics and tore the Fourth Amendment to shreds.”
Anastasiou posted another message in August 2014 that read “America is a POLICE STATE.”
He then criticized CNN’s Carol Costello for her apparent “partisanship.”
‘Shame on CNN’S Carol Costello for appearing to be biased in favor of the police in her interview of the reporter who was arrested and beaten for doing his job. That b***h needs to be fired.’
The arrest comes during a turbulent week for the Supreme Court, following a new shocking article in the New York Times.
Leaked memos show Chief Justice John Roberts was involved in allowing the court to hear high-profile cases against Donald Trump.
According to his Facebook page, he has no friends and hasn’t posted anything in years
His profile picture featured a single photo of a small black and white dog
The conservative judge took the lead in the March case over whether states could remove the former president from their ballots because of his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
According to memos leaked to The New York Times, Roberts demanded a unanimous decision from the judge.
He also took charge of the prosecution of the January 6 rioters after his conservative colleague became embroiled in a feud over his wife flying the Stars and Stripes upside down outside their home.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts with Justice Sonia Sotomayor
The court’s decision on presidential immunity was a major blow to legal efforts to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Roberts told his colleagues to take the case after an appeals court ruled that Trump did not enjoy presidential immunity for his alleged role in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“As I read it, it simply says that a former president can be prosecuted for being prosecuted,” he said of the lower court ruling.
And he made no secret of what he thought his colleagues should decide.
“I think we will probably look at the separation of powers analysis differently,” he wrote in a February memo.
Some conservatives wanted to delay a decision until after the November presidential election. But Roberts demanded an early decision, then insisted on writing the op-ed himself.
“In a case like this, focusing on ‘temporary results’ can have profound implications for the separation of powers and for the future of our Republic,” he wrote loftily. “Our perspective must be more far-sighted.”
The decision was a major blow to legal efforts to prosecute the former president.
Roberts failed to secure the unanimity he sought, prompting a scathing response from liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who lamented that the ruling had given Trump “all the immunity he asked for, and more.”
Justice John Roberts, front right, with his wife Jane Sullivan, center, at the memorial service for former Chief Justice Sandra Day O’Connor last December
Justice John Roberts presides over a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority
Roberts asked conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to write an opinion on the prosecution’s obstruction of the January 6 rioters
But he retracted it and wrote it himself when Alito became embroiled in a dispute over whether his wife had shown sympathy for the “Stop the Steal” movement by flying an upside-down flag.
She warned it protected “treasonous acts,” turned the president into “a king above the law” and made her “fearful for our democracy.”
But he did receive praise from conservatives on the court for his proactive work with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who thanked him for his “extraordinary opinion” and “exceptional work.”
All nine justices planned to strike down Colorado’s effort to remove Trump from the ballot, the newspaper reported.
But he lost that unity when he demanded that Congress take action to extend the constitutional ban on insurrectionists taking power to the president.
In April, Roberts asked Alito to write an opinion when the court was considering whether the Justice Department had gone too far in prosecuting the Jan. 6 rioters for obstruction of justice.
About 250 of them were charged with “obstruction of an official proceeding,” a charge prosecutors were considering bringing against Trump himself.
Alito soon became embroiled in questions about whether his wife had shown sympathy for the “Stop the Steal” movement by flying an upside-down flag.
But Alito did not withdraw from the case, and Roberts took over the case again and put his own name to it.
The change of authorship was not reported at the time, but Roberts continued to write opinions on key issues affecting Trump’s chances of a second presidency.
“If you don’t fight like crazy, you don’t have a country anymore,” Trump told supporters on January 6
Roberts, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, stressed during his 2005 confirmation hearing that “no one is above the law in our system, and that includes the president.”
He was furious when the court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade was leaked before its official publication in May 2022.
He called it “absolutely appalling” and a “serious breach” of court confidentiality.
The ruling itself had sidelined Roberts, as he failed to gain support from any of his eight colleagues for his effort to tighten the rules without jeopardizing the constitutional right to abortion.
The latest leaks show that he has been vigorously trying to regain his authority over the past two years, but the reports have alarmed constitutional and legal experts.
“I thought the Chief was politically astute, but it’s odd that he thought the immunity decision would be well-received,” wrote law professor Jake Charles. “It seems like he’s in an echo chamber, too.”