Threatening the government officials of the United States
Encyclopedia
Threatening the government officials of the United States is a serious crime
under federal law
. Threatening the President of the United States
is a Class D felony
under , punishable by 5 years of imprisonment, that is investigated by the United States Secret Service
. Threatening other officials is a Class C or D felony, usually carrying maximum penalties of 5 or 10 years under , and other statutes, that is investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
. When national boundaries are transcended by such a threat, it is considered a terrorist threat. When a threat is made against a judge, it can be considered obstruction of justice
. Threatening federal officials' family members is also a federal crime; in enacting the law, the Committee on the Judiciary
stated that "Clearly it is a proper Federal function to respond to terrorists and other criminals who seek to influence the making of Federal policies and interfere with the administration of justice by attacking close relatives of those entrusted with these tasks." There are three elements of the offense of making an illegal threat: (i) there must be a transmission in interstate commerce; (ii) there must be a communication containing the threat;(iii) and the threat must be a threat to injure the person of another. Threats can also sometimes be punished under the statutes criminalizing assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain United States Government officers or employees
or assassinating, kidnapping, and assaulting the government officials of the United States
.
United States Sentencing Guidelines take a number of factors into consideration in determining the recommended penalty, including evidence of the person's intent to carry out the threat; disruption to the government function; and the possibility of inciting others to violence. There is also a 6-level official victim
enhancement, which makes the recommended penalty, per the sentencing table, approximately double that which would apply if an ordinary citizen were the victim. There can be many motives for making threats, including political motives or a desire to frame someone else for making the threat. The person's intent can greatly affect the sentence.
In determining what constitutes a true threat
, the courts hold that what must be proved is that a reasonable recipient of the communication would consider it a threat under the circumstances. Thus, a statement to a judge that "You and your family are going to die" would be regarded as a true threat, even if the defendant claimed that he meant it as a literal, biological truth. If a threat is made to multiple individuals, it may be considered to be outside of the guidelines heartland, and therefore to warrant an enhancement.
receives four times as many threats as his predecessor, a claim that Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan
denies. Historically, prosecutions for Presidential assassination threats have risen during periods of national crisis, such as the World Wars and the Vietnam War
era. New communication technologies such as Facebook
, MySpace
, and Twitter
have become vectors for investigated alleged threats against the President.
on House Speaker Sam Rayburn
's front lawn in Texas during debate on civil rights legislation
in the 1960s. The Capital Police investigates threats against congressmen and reports to Bob Brady
, Chairman of the Committee on House Administration. Some threats have been made through YouTube
videos.
In the wake of 2010 legislation for health care reform in the United States
, lawmakers were the recipients of a sharply increased number of threatening communications and actions. More than 10 Democrats
and Republican
Jean Schmidt
received threatening messages. Eric Cantor
, who received a bullet through his campaign office window, stated, "Security threats against members of Congress are not a partisan issue, and they should never be treated that way. To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible." He accused Rep. Chris Van Hollen
of "dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon." Cantor himself received a threat from Norman Leboon, a donor to Barack Obama who had produced more than 2,000 threatening YouTube videos; the Democratic Party said that it would donate the funds to charity.
House Minority Leader John Boehner
stated, “Violence and threats are unacceptable. Yes, I know there is anger, but let’s take that anger, and go out and register people to vote, go volunteer on a political campaign,and let’s do it the right way.” Other lawmakers' windows were broken with bricks and other objects. A spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center
remarked, "I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vigilantism." There were also complaints about former Vice-Presidential
candidate Sarah Palin
's calling on conservatives to "reload" and using an image of crosshairs on a map posted at a Facebook identifying 20 vulnerable Democrats who voted for health care legislation: Palin clarified, "When we take up our arms, we’re talking about our vote," but one congresswoman in Palin's crosshairs, Gabrielle Giffords
, was shot and critically wounded in Tucson, Arizona.
Self-described Tea Party movement
member Catherine Crabill unsuccessfully contended for the Republican nomination in the Virginia's 1st congressional district election, 2010. Crabill's candidacy had been controversial due to her statements that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was intended to help citizens protect themselves from tyranny and that citizens may have to turn from the ballot box
to the bullet box. In 2009, Wittman and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell
refused to endorse her for Virginia House of Delegates
. McDonnell spokesman Tucket Martin stated, "It's absolutely wrong for any candidate of any party to refer to the actions of the President of the United States
and members of the United States Congress
as 'domestic terrorism,' and to threaten to resort to violence if one fails to prevail in elections." Crabill refused to retract her remarks, saying "Those are my convictions."
In a similar incident, Sharron Angle
said, "You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason, and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson
said, it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying, 'My goodness what can we do to turn this country around? And I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid
out." She later explained that she was referring to taking him out of office in the 2010 election. In response, a Harry Reid campaign spokesman said, "It wasn't a gaffe, it is a philosophy. She has repeated that language many times." It is not clear what nonviolent Second Amendment remedies Angle might have been referring to, given other remarks she made that the Second Amendment's purpose is "to defend ourselves. And you know, I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems."
. Stanley was also ordered to pay $8,250 restitution to police who worked overtime to protect the judges.
Threats against federal judges and prosecutors have more than doubled in recent years, with threats against federal prosecutors rising from 116 to 250 from 2003 to 2008, and threats against federal judges climbing from 500 to 1,278 in that same period,
prompting hundreds to get 24-hour protection from armed U.S. marshals. The problem has become so pronounced that a threat management center has been opened in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia, where a staff of about 25 marshals and analysts monitor a 24-hour number for reporting threats, use sophisticated mapping software
to track those being threatened and tap into a classified database linked to the FBI and CIA. In 2009, a radio host was indicted for, after criticizing three appellate judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
who affirmed a lower court decision to dismiss challenges to Chicago's handgun ban as "cunning, ruthless, untrustworthy, disloyal, unpatriotic, deceitful scum," allegedly saying, "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed." He also allegedly posted blog entries providing a photo and a map of the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago, where the court is located, with arrows pointing to "anti-truck bomb barriers." That case resulted in two hung juries. The sending of white powder as part of a threatening communication has become not uncommon since the 2001 anthrax attacks
.
The making of these threats coincided with high-profile violence against federal officials in that same period, including Baltimore Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna
, who was stabbed 36 times with his own penknife and drowned in a creek, and Thomas C. Wales
, an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle gunned down at his home. Such incidents lead U.S. officials to take threats seriously. However, actual attacks on government officials are still rare in the U.S. relative to many countries with more unstable governments (e.g. so-called "banana republic
s" that frequently experience coups and assassinations) as evidenced by the fact that the most famous judge to be assassinated in recent times was John H. Wood, Jr.
back in 1979.
Case law records that many threats are made from prisoners dissatisfied with the handling of their own case or fellow inmates', or wanting to serve time in the federal system. Often the penalties for making the threat are more serious than those imposed for the original offense. Threats by inmates are taken seriously if the person has contacts on the outside who are capable of carrying out the threat. Federal officials attribute the rising threat rate to disgruntled defendants, terrorism and gang cases that bring more violent offenders into federal courts, frustration over the economic crisis and the rise of the "sovereign citizen" movement – a loose collection of tax protesters, white supremacists and others who don't respect federal authority.
is frequently a target of threats. Examples include the case of U.S. v. Darby, in which the defendant told the IRS he was tired of their bullshit
, asked how they would like to have a pipe bomb
delivered to their place of employment, and said that he didn't eat his victims like Jeffrey Dahmer
but just killed them by blowing them up; David J. D'Addabbo, who sent a petition to IRS workers warning that they would be "tried by a jury and your penalty will be sought for it to be death by firing squad" and told the arresting agents to "watch your back"; and John Barker, who perpetrated an anthrax hoax against the IRS. According to the U.S. Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration, threats against the IRS have been rising in recent years, and in 2009 rose from 834 to 1,014 per year, an increase of 21.5% over the prior year. There have been incidents of actual violence against the IRS to take place as well, by people ramming cars into IRS offices, setting them on fire, and taking out hits on IRS employees, although the 2010 Austin plane crash
was one of the more high-profile incidents. According to a Cato Institute
commentator, "this trend is likely to continue until there is a fundamental change in our tax laws and collection methods. People who do not have access to the media and cannot afford expensive tax lawyers sometimes reach such a level of frustration with the IRS that they resort to violent or irrational behavior." There is a special statute, , that protects IRS employees from threats, which according to the U.S. Attorneys' Manual, "provides a particularly helpful alternative in cases where there is simply an offer of violence unaccompanied by the potential for imminent use of physical force."
Federal law enforcement agencies are often the target of threats. Examples include Jeff Henry Williamson, who threatened to blow up FBI headquarters, CIA headquarters and the Justice Department; and Micha Godfrey, who allegedly emailed medical cannabis
websites threats against DEA agents and their families, and a search of whose house subsequently turned up four firearms, a bulletproof vest
, and cannabis plants. Government agencies are sometimes the subject of blackmail
attempts, as when an informer threatened to falsely accuse the FBI of knowing in advance that the World Trade Center
would be bombed and of failing to stop it.
s to obtain the real name, street address and Internet logs of the sender, and those who provide the information were forbidden by the PATRIOT Act from revealing the request to anyone, until the Doe v. Ashcroft case overturned that gag rule
. According to the federal investigators, political protesters who threaten elected officials or turn violent are easier for law enforcement officials to track due to their vocal and high profile statements on the internet and their association with the Tea Party movement
. For instance, Nigel Coleman posted the address of Rep. Tom Perriello
online and invited people to "visit" the official at his home. The address was actually Perriello's brother Bo. A severed gas line at the home was discovered one day after the address was made public.
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
under federal law
Law of the United States
The law of the United States consists of many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States...
. Threatening the President of the United States
Threatening the President of the United States
Threatening the President of the United States is a class D felony under United States Code Title 18, Section 871. It consists of knowingly and willfully mailing or otherwise making "any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States"...
is a Class D felony
Classes of offenses under United States federal law
The classes of offenses under United States federal law are as follows:References-See also:*Special assessment on convicted persons*Supervised release*Probation and supervised release under United States federal law...
under , punishable by 5 years of imprisonment, that is investigated by the United States Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
. Threatening other officials is a Class C or D felony, usually carrying maximum penalties of 5 or 10 years under , and other statutes, that is investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
. When national boundaries are transcended by such a threat, it is considered a terrorist threat. When a threat is made against a judge, it can be considered obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice
The crime of obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, refers to the crime of interfering with the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other officials...
. Threatening federal officials' family members is also a federal crime; in enacting the law, the Committee on the Judiciary
Committee on the Judiciary
Committee on the Judiciary may mean:* United States House Committee on the Judiciary* United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary...
stated that "Clearly it is a proper Federal function to respond to terrorists and other criminals who seek to influence the making of Federal policies and interfere with the administration of justice by attacking close relatives of those entrusted with these tasks." There are three elements of the offense of making an illegal threat: (i) there must be a transmission in interstate commerce; (ii) there must be a communication containing the threat;(iii) and the threat must be a threat to injure the person of another. Threats can also sometimes be punished under the statutes criminalizing assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain United States Government officers or employees
Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain United States Government officers or employees
Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain United States Government officers or employees is an offense under . Simple assault is a class A misdemeanor, but if physical contact occurs, the offense is a class D felony. If a deadly weapon is used or bodily injury is inflicted, it is a class C felony...
or assassinating, kidnapping, and assaulting the government officials of the United States
Assassinating, kidnapping, and assaulting the government officials of the United States
Assaulting, kidnapping, and assassinating the government officials of the United States, their families, and foreign dignitaries and official guests, is a crime under various statutes, including , , Assaulting, kidnapping, and assassinating the government officials of the United States, their...
.
United States Sentencing Guidelines take a number of factors into consideration in determining the recommended penalty, including evidence of the person's intent to carry out the threat; disruption to the government function; and the possibility of inciting others to violence. There is also a 6-level official victim
Official victim
The official victim enhancement is a 3- or 6-level increase under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines that applies when a person knowingly commits a crime against a government official and is motivated by that person's status...
enhancement, which makes the recommended penalty, per the sentencing table, approximately double that which would apply if an ordinary citizen were the victim. There can be many motives for making threats, including political motives or a desire to frame someone else for making the threat. The person's intent can greatly affect the sentence.
In determining what constitutes a true threat
True threat
A true threat is a threatening communication that can be prosecuted under the law. It is distinct from a threat that is made in jest. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that true threats are not protected under the U.S...
, the courts hold that what must be proved is that a reasonable recipient of the communication would consider it a threat under the circumstances. Thus, a statement to a judge that "You and your family are going to die" would be regarded as a true threat, even if the defendant claimed that he meant it as a literal, biological truth. If a threat is made to multiple individuals, it may be considered to be outside of the guidelines heartland, and therefore to warrant an enhancement.
President
The Secret Service prefers not to publicize incidents of Presidential assassination threats, because it believes that it will generate more criminal behavior, especially among the mentally ill. Reports have circulated that Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
receives four times as many threats as his predecessor, a claim that Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan
Mark J. Sullivan
Mark J. Sullivan is the current Director of the United States Secret Service. Sullivan succeeded W. Ralph Basham and was sworn in as the 22nd Director of the Secret Service on May 31, 2006.-Early life:...
denies. Historically, prosecutions for Presidential assassination threats have risen during periods of national crisis, such as the World Wars and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
era. New communication technologies such as Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
, and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
have become vectors for investigated alleged threats against the President.
Legislators
The worst actual violence against Congressmen occurred in 1954 when four Puerto Rican nationalists shot up the House chamber, wounding five members. Threats and intimidation directed against Congress are far more common. For example, a cross was burnedCross burning
Cross burning or cross lighting is a practice widely associated with the Ku Klux Klan, although the historical practice long predates the Klan's inception...
on House Speaker Sam Rayburn
Sam Rayburn
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn , often called "Mr. Sam," or "Mr. Democrat," was a Democratic lawmaker from Bonham, Texas, who served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for seventeen years, the longest tenure in U.S. history.- Background :Rayburn was born in Roane County, Tennessee, and...
's front lawn in Texas during debate on civil rights legislation
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
in the 1960s. The Capital Police investigates threats against congressmen and reports to Bob Brady
Bob Brady
Robert A. "Bob" Brady is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1998, and the ranking Democrat on the United States House Committee on House Administration since 2007...
, Chairman of the Committee on House Administration. Some threats have been made through YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos.
In the wake of 2010 legislation for health care reform in the United States
Health care reform in the United States
Health care reform in the United States has a long history, of which the most recent results were two federal statutes enacted in 2010: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act , signed March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 , which amended the PPACA and...
, lawmakers were the recipients of a sharply increased number of threatening communications and actions. More than 10 Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Jean Schmidt
Jean Schmidt
Jeannette Marie Hoffman Schmidt, is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. She is a member of the Republican Party. The district stretches from eastern Cincinnati to Portsmouth....
received threatening messages. Eric Cantor
Eric Cantor
Eric Ivan Cantor is the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district, serving since 2001. A member of the Republican Party, he became House Majority Leader when the 112th Congress convened on January 3, 2011...
, who received a bullet through his campaign office window, stated, "Security threats against members of Congress are not a partisan issue, and they should never be treated that way. To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible." He accused Rep. Chris Van Hollen
Chris Van Hollen
Christopher "Chris" Van Hollen, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
of "dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon." Cantor himself received a threat from Norman Leboon, a donor to Barack Obama who had produced more than 2,000 threatening YouTube videos; the Democratic Party said that it would donate the funds to charity.
House Minority Leader John Boehner
John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner is the 61st and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he is the U.S. Representative from , serving since 1991...
stated, “Violence and threats are unacceptable. Yes, I know there is anger, but let’s take that anger, and go out and register people to vote, go volunteer on a political campaign,and let’s do it the right way.” Other lawmakers' windows were broken with bricks and other objects. A spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
remarked, "I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vigilantism." There were also complaints about former Vice-Presidential
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
candidate Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
's calling on conservatives to "reload" and using an image of crosshairs on a map posted at a Facebook identifying 20 vulnerable Democrats who voted for health care legislation: Palin clarified, "When we take up our arms, we’re talking about our vote," but one congresswoman in Palin's crosshairs, Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Dee "Gabby" Giffords is an American politician. A Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, she has represented since 2007. She is the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress...
, was shot and critically wounded in Tucson, Arizona.
Self-described Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
member Catherine Crabill unsuccessfully contended for the Republican nomination in the Virginia's 1st congressional district election, 2010. Crabill's candidacy had been controversial due to her statements that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was intended to help citizens protect themselves from tyranny and that citizens may have to turn from the ballot box
Ballot box
A ballot box is a temporarily sealed container, usually square box though sometimes a tamper resistant bag, with a narrow slot in the top sufficient to accept a ballot paper in an election but which prevents anyone from accessing the votes cast until the close of the voting period...
to the bullet box. In 2009, Wittman and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell
Bob McDonnell
Robert Francis "Bob" McDonnell is an American politician who has been the 71st Governor of Virginia since January 2010. A former lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, McDonnell served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1993 to 2006 and served as Attorney General of Virginia from 2006...
refused to endorse her for Virginia House of Delegates
Virginia House of Delegates
The Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbered years. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House, who is elected from among the...
. McDonnell spokesman Tucket Martin stated, "It's absolutely wrong for any candidate of any party to refer to the actions of the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and members of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
as 'domestic terrorism,' and to threaten to resort to violence if one fails to prevail in elections." Crabill refused to retract her remarks, saying "Those are my convictions."
In a similar incident, Sharron Angle
Sharron Angle
Sharron Elaine Angle is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Nevada Assembly from 1999 to 2007. She ran unsuccessfully as the 2010 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Nevada, garnering 45 percent of the vote...
said, "You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason, and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
said, it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying, 'My goodness what can we do to turn this country around? And I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
out." She later explained that she was referring to taking him out of office in the 2010 election. In response, a Harry Reid campaign spokesman said, "It wasn't a gaffe, it is a philosophy. She has repeated that language many times." It is not clear what nonviolent Second Amendment remedies Angle might have been referring to, given other remarks she made that the Second Amendment's purpose is "to defend ourselves. And you know, I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems."
Judges and prosecutors
Threats against federal judges can include threats of vigilantism. For instance, in 2004, gun-rights activist, Denver businessman and former Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate Rick Stanley was sentenced to six years of imprisonment for sending two judges, Thornton Municipal Judge Charles J. Rose and 17th Judicial District Judge Donald W. Marshall Jr., a "notice of order" demanding that they reverse his conviction for a weapons violation or face arrest by Stanley's Mutual Defense Pact Militia and a trial for treasonTreason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. Stanley was also ordered to pay $8,250 restitution to police who worked overtime to protect the judges.
Threats against federal judges and prosecutors have more than doubled in recent years, with threats against federal prosecutors rising from 116 to 250 from 2003 to 2008, and threats against federal judges climbing from 500 to 1,278 in that same period,
prompting hundreds to get 24-hour protection from armed U.S. marshals. The problem has become so pronounced that a threat management center has been opened in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia, where a staff of about 25 marshals and analysts monitor a 24-hour number for reporting threats, use sophisticated mapping software
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
to track those being threatened and tap into a classified database linked to the FBI and CIA. In 2009, a radio host was indicted for, after criticizing three appellate judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts:* Central District of Illinois* Northern District of Illinois...
who affirmed a lower court decision to dismiss challenges to Chicago's handgun ban as "cunning, ruthless, untrustworthy, disloyal, unpatriotic, deceitful scum," allegedly saying, "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed." He also allegedly posted blog entries providing a photo and a map of the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago, where the court is located, with arrows pointing to "anti-truck bomb barriers." That case resulted in two hung juries. The sending of white powder as part of a threatening communication has become not uncommon since the 2001 anthrax attacks
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
.
The making of these threats coincided with high-profile violence against federal officials in that same period, including Baltimore Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna
Jonathan Luna
Jonathan P. Luna was a Baltimore-based Assistant United States Attorney who was stabbed 36 times with his own penknife and found drowned in a creek in Pennsylvania.- Personal background :...
, who was stabbed 36 times with his own penknife and drowned in a creek, and Thomas C. Wales
Thomas C. Wales
Thomas Crane Wales was an American federal prosecutor and gun control advocate from Seattle, Washington, who was the victim of an unsolved murder.- Life and work :...
, an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle gunned down at his home. Such incidents lead U.S. officials to take threats seriously. However, actual attacks on government officials are still rare in the U.S. relative to many countries with more unstable governments (e.g. so-called "banana republic
Banana republic
In political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
s" that frequently experience coups and assassinations) as evidenced by the fact that the most famous judge to be assassinated in recent times was John H. Wood, Jr.
John H. Wood, Jr.
John Howland Wood, Jr. was an American lawyer and judge from the U.S. state of Texas. He served on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas before being assassinated by Charles Harrelson outside Wood's home in San Antonio, Texas, in 1979. Wood's killing was the first...
back in 1979.
Case law records that many threats are made from prisoners dissatisfied with the handling of their own case or fellow inmates', or wanting to serve time in the federal system. Often the penalties for making the threat are more serious than those imposed for the original offense. Threats by inmates are taken seriously if the person has contacts on the outside who are capable of carrying out the threat. Federal officials attribute the rising threat rate to disgruntled defendants, terrorism and gang cases that bring more violent offenders into federal courts, frustration over the economic crisis and the rise of the "sovereign citizen" movement – a loose collection of tax protesters, white supremacists and others who don't respect federal authority.
Other civil servants
The Internal Revenue ServiceInternal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
is frequently a target of threats. Examples include the case of U.S. v. Darby, in which the defendant told the IRS he was tired of their bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit is a common English expletive which may be shortened to the euphemism bull or the initialism B.S. In British English, "bollocks" is a comparable expletive, although bullshit is commonly used in British English...
, asked how they would like to have a pipe bomb
Pipe bomb
A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
delivered to their place of employment, and said that he didn't eat his victims like Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders involved rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism...
but just killed them by blowing them up; David J. D'Addabbo, who sent a petition to IRS workers warning that they would be "tried by a jury and your penalty will be sought for it to be death by firing squad" and told the arresting agents to "watch your back"; and John Barker, who perpetrated an anthrax hoax against the IRS. According to the U.S. Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration, threats against the IRS have been rising in recent years, and in 2009 rose from 834 to 1,014 per year, an increase of 21.5% over the prior year. There have been incidents of actual violence against the IRS to take place as well, by people ramming cars into IRS offices, setting them on fire, and taking out hits on IRS employees, although the 2010 Austin plane crash
2010 Austin plane crash
The 2010 Austin suicide attack occurred on 18 February 2010, when Andrew Joseph Stack III, flying his Piper Dakota, crashed into Building I of the Echelon office complex in Austin, Texas, United States, killing himself and Internal Revenue Service manager Vernon Hunter. Thirteen others were...
was one of the more high-profile incidents. According to a Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
commentator, "this trend is likely to continue until there is a fundamental change in our tax laws and collection methods. People who do not have access to the media and cannot afford expensive tax lawyers sometimes reach such a level of frustration with the IRS that they resort to violent or irrational behavior." There is a special statute, , that protects IRS employees from threats, which according to the U.S. Attorneys' Manual, "provides a particularly helpful alternative in cases where there is simply an offer of violence unaccompanied by the potential for imminent use of physical force."
Federal law enforcement agencies are often the target of threats. Examples include Jeff Henry Williamson, who threatened to blow up FBI headquarters, CIA headquarters and the Justice Department; and Micha Godfrey, who allegedly emailed medical cannabis
Medical cannabis
Medical cannabis refers to the use of parts of the herb cannabis as a physician-recommended form of medicine or herbal therapy, or to synthetic forms of specific cannabinoids such as THC as a physician-recommended form of medicine...
websites threats against DEA agents and their families, and a search of whose house subsequently turned up four firearms, a bulletproof vest
Bulletproof vest
A ballistic vest, bulletproof vest or bullet-resistant vest is an item of personal armor that helps absorb the impact from firearm-fired projectiles and shrapnel from explosions, and is worn on the torso...
, and cannabis plants. Government agencies are sometimes the subject of blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
attempts, as when an informer threatened to falsely accuse the FBI of knowing in advance that the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
would be bombed and of failing to stop it.
Enforcement
When the FBI receives threats over the Internet, it can use National Security LetterNational Security Letter
A National Security Letter is a form of administrative subpoena used by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and reportedly by other U.S. Government Agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. They require no probable cause or judicial oversight...
s to obtain the real name, street address and Internet logs of the sender, and those who provide the information were forbidden by the PATRIOT Act from revealing the request to anyone, until the Doe v. Ashcroft case overturned that gag rule
Gag rule
A gag rule is a rule that limits or forbids the raising, consideration or discussion of a particular topic by members of a legislative or decision-making body.-Origin and pros and cons:...
. According to the federal investigators, political protesters who threaten elected officials or turn violent are easier for law enforcement officials to track due to their vocal and high profile statements on the internet and their association with the Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
. For instance, Nigel Coleman posted the address of Rep. Tom Perriello
Tom Perriello
Thomas Stuart Price "Tom" Perriello is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2009 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes much of Southside Virginia and stretches north to Charlottesville....
online and invited people to "visit" the official at his home. The address was actually Perriello's brother Bo. A severed gas line at the home was discovered one day after the address was made public.