Alaska man charged with threatening to assassinate 6 Supreme Court justices
Washington — An Alaska man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly threatening to assassinate six members of the Supreme Court and harm two family members, the Justice Department said.
Panos Anastasiou, 76, is accused of sending more than 465 messages to the Supreme Court through an online portal, which included violent, racist, and homophobic rhetoric, according to court filings. Anastasiou allegedly threatened to assassinate, kidnap, torture, hang, behead and execute the justices, and encouraged other people to join him in committing acts of violence, the Justice Department said.
He faces nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. Anastasiou appeared before a federal magistrate judge Wednesday and 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, a former federal appeals court judge, 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."
The Supreme Court declined to comment on the charges. An attorney for Anastasiou was not listed in court records.
The targeted justices are not named in the indictment and identified only as "Supreme Court justices 1-6." Charging documents state that some of the threats allegedly made by Anastasiou "were intended to intimidate" the justices and "retaliate against them for official actions" they had taken in their capacity as judges.
The messages were sent between January and July, when the Supreme Court ended its term, court documents.
In one of the messages, sent Jan. 4, Anastasiou allegedly threatened to murder one justice by saying he'd like to see the justice and an unidentified former president "hanging together from an Oak tree," and said he would "gladly provide the rope and pull the handle." The unnamed former president is likely former President Donald Trump, as a subsequent message included in court filings references him as a "convicted criminal." Trump became the first former president to be found guilty of a crime when a New York jury convicted him on 34 state felony counts earlier this year.
Another message on May 10 included a threat to kill the same justice by "lynching" and included a racial slur, according to legal documents.
Court filings state that in a May 16 message referring to a second member of the Supreme Court, Anastasiou allegedly threatened to kill the justice by putting "a bullet in this mother f***ers head." The Justice Department said a message sent the following day was targeted not only at the first two justices, but also two unnamed family members. It warned of sending "fellow Vietnam veterans" to "spray" one Supreme Court member's house with bullets with hopes of killing them. The same message again used a racial slur, and Anastasiou allegedly said he hoped the first justice and his "white trailer trash ... insurrectionist wife are visiting."
A message sent on July 5 stated, "We should make [Supreme Court Justices 1-6] be AFRAID very AFRAID to leave their home and fear for their lives everyday," according to court filings.
Federal prosecutors said Anastasiou began sending "concerning messages" to the Supreme Court in the spring of 2023. The Supreme Court Police reviewed them and determined they were "concerning enough" to warrant an investigation. The FBI interviewed Anastasiou about the messages. Later, he allegedly sent a message to the Supreme Court "daring" the justices to visit his home, prosecutors said.
The Justice Department said the messages took an "even more violent turn" in January. In addition to threatening justices with "lynching," court filings show he advocated for "mass assassinations" and called for "patriotic" Americans to kill members of the high court.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority and has come under immense criticism in recent years for decisions on politically charged issues including abortion, guns and presidential power. In its most recent term, the six conservatives voted to find former President Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official acts undertaken in the White House.
Its June 2022 decision unwinding the constitutional right to abortion was highly criticized and led to protests outside the homes of several conservative justices, including Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. A California man was arrested in June 2022 after he was found outside of Kavanaugh's Maryland house with a gun, knife and various tools, and charged with threatening to assassinate the justice. He pleaded not guilty.