A Texas man pleaded guilty on Thursday to making threats against public officials in Georgia following the 2020 election, the Department of Justice said in a news release.
Chad Christopher Stark, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of sending a threat using a telecommunications device, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison, according to the release. A sentencing date has not yet been set for Stark, who had been indicted in January 2022.
Prosecutors said that Stark posted a threatening message on Craigslist toward an unnamed election official on or around January 5, 2021, a day before supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress' certification of the 2020 election.
The message, according to court documents, said in part: "It's time to invoke our Second Amendment right it's time to put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese [Official A]. Then we work our way down to [Official B] the local and federal corrupt judges."
"It's our duty as American Patriots to put an end to the lives of these traitors and take back our country by force we can no longer wait on the corrupt law enforcement in the corrupt courts. If we want our country back we have to exterminate these people," he wrote, according to the indictment.
The case is part of the department's Election Threats Task Force, an effort launched in June 2021 to crack down on threats against election officials nationwide.
"Stark threatened officials working at all levels of the election process, including elected officeholders and a volunteer poll worker. His egregious conduct placed our democracy in jeopardy, striking at the heart of the process we assume to be insulated from such attacks," Ryan K. Buchanan, US attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said in a statement.
"Our office will remain steadfast in partnering with federal, state, and local authorities to safeguard those who work to secure our elections," he continued.
