The DOJ Prosecutes Those Threatening Election Officials. Here's Where Their Cases Stand.

     Slowly but surely, the Justice Department is moving forward on cases against the violent domestic terrorists who are threatening our democracy, more specifically election workers. Three individuals, all men, from three different states have been arrested on felony charges so far. I implore Attorney General Garland to ramp up the pace of these arrests; hundreds of election workers were threatened, mostly between November 2020 and January 2021. Here are where the three cases so far, at least, stand:

1. 42-year-old Travis Ford of Lincoln, Nebraska, pleaded guilty in June 2022 to threatening Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Jewish woman who is the first Democrat to hold the position in nearly 60 years. For telling her that her security detail was too "thin and incompetent," that "anything could happen," and that she "shouldn't" feel safe, and for making similar threats on the social media pages of President Joe Biden and other elected officials, Ford was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
2. Arrested in January 2022, 54-year-old Chad Christopher Stark of Leander, Texas, pleaded guilty to communicating interstate threats, a five-year felony, for offering "Georgia patriots... $10,000" to "spill the blood of Chinese traitors," including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, on Craigslist. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
3. Gjergi Luke Juncaj, a 50-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada, the worst of the three men charged so far, called into the Nevada Secretary of State's Office and told an employee that she did a great job "stealing" the election, that she was "going to fucking die," and that he hoped her kids got molested. For his four phone calls, he was charged with four felony counts of making threatening phone calls and faced a maximum of eight years in federal prison. He was acquitted in May 2023.
4. James W. Clark, 38, of Falmouth, Massachusetts, called into the office of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, in February 2021. He demanded she resign and claimed that he had placed a bomb in her office and would detonate it if she did not comply. Clark has been charged with three felonies carrying a combined maximum of 20 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to a single felony in August 2023 and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
5. Walter Lee Hoornstra, 50, of Tecumseh, Missouri, a former school board member who saw the Arizona audit as proof of election fraud, was charged with two felonies carrying a combined maximum of seven years in prison for threatening the Maricopa County recorder, saying that if they didn't overturn the election they'd "never make it to [their] next little board meeting."
6. Mark A. Rissi, 64, of Hiawatha, Iowa, was charged with three felonies carrying a combined maximum of 12 years for calling a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and then the Office of the Arizona Attorney General and threatening to get "torches and pitchforks" and "hang" and "lynch" them, saying, "You're gonna die" and, "You lied on a Bible, you piece of shit." He ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
7. Joshua Russell, 44, of Bucyrus, Ohio, was arrested for leaving threats like, "your days are numbered," to now-Governor Katie Hobbs and two other elected officials. He pleaded guilty to a felony interstate threats charge and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
8. Andrew Nickels, 37, of Carmel, Indiana, has been charged with a five-year felony for threatening a Republican election worker who combated election disinformation, stating that "10 million plus patriots" would come to take her out, end her life, target her family, kill her, put a knife to her throat, and a plethora of other horrific threats. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
9. Frederick Francis Goltz, 52, of Lubbock, Texas, pleaded guilty to a felony and was sentenced to 42 months in prison for threatening two Arizona election workers and their children and saying election workers deserved mass shootings.
10. Jessica Diane Higginbotham, 35, of Elberton, Georgia, pleaded guilty to a felony and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for staging a break-in and stealing a laptop at one Democratic headquarters and sending a bomb threat to another.
11. Gary Koch, 72, of Louisville, Kentucky, was sentenced to two years in prison for mailing a threatening letter to a political candidate.
12. Joshua Lubitz, 38, of Sunrise, Florida, stands out on this list. He has a long history of mental health issues and pleaded guilty against advice of counsel to threatening election workers at the Sunrise Senior Center (he lives with his parents), receiving a sentence of house arrest and probation.
13. Katelyn Jones, 26, formerly of Michigan and currently of New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to a disturbing felony for sending photos of dead bodies to a Board of Canvassers member in Michigan who voted against certifying the 2020 election. While the actions of the election worker in this case were contrary to her duties, the threats were vile, and Ms. Jones deserved a longer sentence.
14. Solomon Peña, 40, of New Mexico, is a MAGA State House candidate who failed in his 2022 election bid and hired a father and son to shoot up the homes of Democratic politicians across the state. Peña, who is a convicted felon for his involvement in robberies, has also been charged with attempting to have his co-defendants killed to prevent them from testifying against him. He faces life in prison if he is convicted, with trial set for June.
15. Jose Trujillo, 22, of New Mexico, used his bank account to funnel money into Solomon Peña's 2022 election bid, and, after the latter's loss, helped pressure local officials in an attempt to overturn the results before being contracted to conduct the shootings. In addition to the weapons and ammunition, he was found with 893 fentanyl pills. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy, election interference, fentanyl, and firearms charges, and he could face up to life in prison when he is sentenced.
16. Demetrio Trujillo, 42, of New Mexico, is Jose's father. He joined his son and Peña in attempting to overturn the results of the 2022 State House election as well as in the shootings of the four homes, and he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, firearms, and election interference charges. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced.
17. Matthew Hyde, 52, of San Diego, California, has been charged with a felony that could send him to prison for five years for sending messages telling Maricopa County election workers they had "better run" and "f*****g hide" after they voted to certify the 2022 midterms.
18. Brian Jerry Ogstad, 59, of Cullman, Alabama, sent at least a dozen messages containing numerous threats over the course of multiple days during the 2022 midterms to election workers in Maicopa County, Arizona. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
19. Teak Ty Brockbank, 45, of Cortez, Colorado, pleaded guilty to threatening Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Colorado state judge, election workers in Colorado and Arizona, and federal law enforcement. He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on February 3rd, 2025.
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