MELTDOWN

Man Pleads Guilty to Calling for Assassination of Trump and Conservative Justices

The 77-year-old said the assassinations were “essential” for the country and democracy.

A 77-year-old man has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges for calling for President Donald Trump’s assassination and threatening to murder several conservative Supreme Court justices. Panos Anastasiou, who suffers from serious health issues including dementia, pled guilty to sending more than 500 messages between 2023 and 2024, according to a filing in federal court in Alaska. The messages included “threats of assassination, torture, hanging,” as well as other violent, racist, and homophobic language, according to prosecutors. In one message from July 2024, Anastasiou is said to have called for the killing of Trump, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. “Their assassination is ESSENTIAL for the country and democracy,” Anastasiou allegedly wrote in an email. Federal prosecutors will recommend a probationary sentence and a period of home confinement due to Anastasiou’s age and health problems. His guilty plea comes amid a spike in threats against the federal judiciary. Last year, the U.S. Marshals Service investigated more than 560 threats involving about 400 federal judges. Since October, when the current fiscal year began, 300 threat investigations have already been opened.