The Justice Division revealed an indictment Friday charging a Florida man with threatening to kill his political opponent in 2021.
William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was charged with threatening two individuals, certainly one of whom the DOJ stated was his major opponent within the 2022 election for Florida’s thirteenth Congressional District. Braddock allegedly threatened to “name up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make the first opponent disappear, in accordance with the indictment.
The DOJ indictment didn’t identify the alleged victims.
One in every of Braddock’s major opponents and the race’s eventual winner, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., contended in 2021 courtroom paperwork that Braddock was stalking her and wished her lifeless.
A Florida courtroom in 2021 granted Luna and a conservative activist and pal of hers, Erin Olszewski, a brief restraining order.
Braddock terminated his marketing campaign in 2021 shortly after the decide granted the injunction.
NBC Information couldn’t instantly attain Braddock for touch upon Saturday. It’s unclear whether or not Braddock has entered a plea.
A spokesperson for Luna and an lawyer for Olszewski didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Saturday afternoon.
Braddock instructed the Pinellas County decide in 2021 he opposed the injunction and wished to “acquire, evaluate and validate” proof offered in opposition to him, saying he didn’t “know what they’ve.”
After allegedly making the threats, Braddock fled the nation and was later discovered to be residing within the Philippines, in accordance with the DOJ. He was then deported to the U.S. and made his first courtroom look Thursday in Los Angeles, per the DOJ information launch.
Braddock is charged with one rely of interstate transmission of a real risk to injure one other particular person, for which he may face a most of 5 years in jail if convicted, the DOJ stated.
The case is a part of the Justice Division’s Election Threats Activity Drive, convened in 2021 to handle threats focusing on election staff. The FBI’s Tampa discipline workplace is investigating the case with help from the St. Petersburg Police Division, the DOJ stated.
Luna is up for re-election on Nov. 5. The Republican major for her seat in August was canceled after Luna was the one candidate to qualify.
