New York man arrested for threatening to kill Senator Schumer, protesters say, prosecutors say



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Authorities arrested a man in New York after threatening to kill “anyone who claims to be a Democrat” and “blow up” the FBI on social media, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said members of the Joint Task Force on Terrorism, including FBI agents and officers from the New York Police Department, arrested Brian Maiorana, 54, from his Staten Island home on Tuesday morning.

Maiorana has been charged in a federal complaint with threatening to kill and ordering others to kill protesters, law enforcement officials and elected officials, including Senator Chuck Schumer, (DN. Y.), according to documents filed in the Eastern District of New York.

A Brooklyn federal court judge ordered his detention pending a bail hearing, prosecutors said.

His lawyer, James Darrow, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Maiorana’s family members could not be reached immediately for comment on Wednesday.

Maiorana is being held behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial on November 24.

“The Ministry of Justice will not stand idly by when people like the accused threaten to kill elected officials, legitimate protesters and law enforcement simply because of animosity towards the election result,” he said. said Seth Ducharme, acting US attorney.

“Americans have the right to express their opinions, but this office will not tolerate violence or threats of violence used to intimidate others with whom they disagree,” he said.

Prosecutors said Maiorana took to social media to threaten law enforcement and elected officials from September until days after the presidential election. The charges did not specify which social media platform Maiorana had used to share her violent posts.

In October, Maiorana posted on social media that she had “come to the point where homemade bombs need to be thrown at these crowds of potentially non-violent violent protesters,” prosecutors said.

On November 5 – as officials continued to count the ballots – Maiorana said that “the carnage must take the form of extermination of anyone who claims to be a Democrat”, including members of his family, according to court documents.

Three days later, after media organizations screened Joe Biden as president-elect, Maiorana added, “The Turner Diaries must come to life”, referring to a 1978 novel about a violent U.S. government coup that resulted in a nuclear and racial war in which all non-whites were wiped out.

The anti-government novel has been an oft-cited influence among white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, as well as a source of inspiration for acts of terrorism, including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, according to the reporters. prosecutors.

Task force members found a semi-automatic pistol during their home raid, prosecutors said, but Maiorana was banned from owning guns in New York after being convicted of sexual assault in 2007.

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