“Workers are under siege simply for carrying out their duties faithfully and dependably,” asserts John Keller, as an individual receives a 30-month sentence for making threats.
“Election officials nationwide are confronting an unwarranted barrage of hostility for faithfully and effectively executing their duties,” stated John Keller, the head of a federal taskforce dedicated to safeguarding the election community from violent threats.
Taskforce operations are centered in Washington, where Keller highlighted the surge of violent threats, spurred by Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
This onslaught, Keller emphasized, poses a direct assault “on the very bedrock of our democracy – our electoral process.” He further remarked that the United States has entered a “new era,” characterized by the scapegoating, targeting, and assault on the election community.
On Monday, the federal taskforce, established in June 2021, achieved its 10th conviction of an individual for making violent threats against an election official.
Following the sentencing in Phoenix, Arizona, John Keller addressed the media, underscoring the importance of robust public oversight over government authority and officials. However, he stressed that while scrutiny is essential, “death threats are not debate; death threats are not first-amendment protected speech.” Keller affirmed that such threats constitute criminal acts and will face the full weight of the Department of Justice.
During the sentencing at a federal district court in Phoenix, Joshua Russell from Bucyrus, Ohio, received a 30-month prison term. He pleaded guilty to making a threatening communication across state lines.
Court records revealed that between August and November 2022, Russell left three threatening voicemails on the phone of Katie Hobbs, then serving as Arizona’s secretary of state. In these messages, Russell accused Hobbs of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden won in Arizona by approximately 10,000 votes. He labeled her a communist, a traitor, and “an enemy of the United States.”
In a voicemail left in November, Russell threatened, “You better put your [expletive] affairs in order, ‘cos your days are extremely numbered. America’s coming for you, and you will pay with your life.”
Another voicemail from Russell warned, “A war is coming for you. The entire nation is coming for you. And we will stop, at no end, until you are in the ground.”
This marks the second sentencing this month related to threats against Hobbs during her tenure as Arizona’s secretary of state. James Clark from Massachusetts was previously sentenced to three and a half years in prison for threatening to detonate explosives he claimed to have planted in her personal space.
Keller, serving as the principal deputy chief of the public integrity section of the DoJ’s criminal division, emphasized the taskforce’s collaboration with state and local law enforcement to curb the escalating threats as Arizona and the nation approach the upcoming presidential election. He stressed, “This behavior is insidious, with potentially grave consequences for individual victims and for the institution of election administration as a whole.”
Arizona, historically a pivotal battleground state in presidential contests, has become the focal point of threats against election officials in the US. Seven out of the 16 cases prosecuted nationally under the election threats taskforce were concentrated in the state, particularly in Maricopa county, the largest constituency encompassing Phoenix.
Following the onslaught of attacks, there’s been a significant shortage of election officials, many of whom have resigned due to violent threats directed at them and their families. In Arizona, twelve out of the fifteen counties in the state have seen at least one of their top election administrators resign since Trump’s assault on democracy began in 2020.
Gary Restaino, the US attorney for Arizona, noted that the common thread among the cases handled by the taskforce was “election denialists announcing an intent to violently punish those who they believe have wronged them.”
He emphasized, “There’s no constitutional right to vigilantism. Let these cases be a lesson not to take the rule of law into one’s own hands.