WASHINGTON — An Alaska man has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly sending threatening messages to six Supreme Court justices and their families, authorities reported Thursday.
Panos Anastasiou, 76, is accused of dispatching over 465 messages via a public court website, which included graphic threats of violence and abusive language targeting various groups.
While the indictment does not name the specific justices targeted, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that the threats were made in response to judicial decisions that Anastasiou opposed. “Our democracy depends on public officials being able to perform their duties without fear for their lives or the safety of their families,” he emphasized.
Anastasiou faces 22 charges, including nine counts of threatening a federal judge and 13 counts of making interstate threats. He was released from detention late Thursday, with conditions prohibiting any contact with the justices or their families.
During the hearing, Magistrate Kyle Reardon reviewed some of the messages sent by Anastasiou between March 2023 and mid-July 2024, including calls for violence against two justices to enable their replacement by appointments from the current Democratic president.
Rather than curtailing his rhetoric after a visit from FBI agents last year, Anastasiou allegedly increased both the frequency and intensity of his threatening communications, as noted by Reardon.
At the hearing, Anastasiou, appearing in a yellow prison uniform with shackles, expressed concerns for his pets while in custody and conveyed a desire to return home to care for them.
If convicted, Anastasiou could face a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count of threatening a federal judge and up to five years for each interstate threat.
The prevalence of threats against federal judges has surged in recent years, reflecting a broader trend of violence directed at public officials throughout the country, as reported by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Notably, in 2022, a man was apprehended near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home with weapons and zip ties shortly after the leak of a draft decision related to Roe v. Wade.
