The federal government has indicted an Alaska man for sending graphic and violent threats to six of the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as to their family members.
76-year-old Panos Anastasiou is accused of using the court’s website to send more than 465 messages to the justices. They included explicit and graphic threats to kill the judges, along with musings about torturing them. Although authorities have not released the contents of all of the messages, they describe some of them as being “racist” and “homophobic.”
The indictment also does not indicate which of the six judges were targeted. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Anastasiou threatened the court because of decisions that he disagreed with. While the six targeted justices are not known, the court is considered to have six conservative and three liberal justices.
Using the phrase familiar to anyone who pays attention to U.S. political issues, Garland said “our democracy” can only work if public officials are able to do their jobs without fearing for their lives and the safety of their families.
Federal prosecutors said the man sent the threats between March of 2023 and the middle of July in 2024. Anastasiou will have to fight 22 total counts, which includes nine counts of threatening a federal judge, and 13 counts of making threats through interstate commerce.
Police arrested Anastasiou in Anchorage on September 18. His defense lawyer, Jane Imholte, would not offer any comment to news media. Her client, if convicted, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. The charges all carry a maximum penalty of between 5 and 10 years in prison.
The U.S. Marshals Service said that threats against federal judges have doubled recently, and these come amid a surge in violent threats sent to public officials and politicians across the country.
One of the most alarming came in 2022 when a man angry at SCOTUS for overturning the Roe v Wade abortion decision went to the home of Justice Brett Kavanagh carrying weapons and zip ties.
