Alaska Man Charged With Threats to Torture, Murder Conservative Supreme Court Justices

An Alaska man has been charged with threatening to torture and kill six Supreme Court justices — including two of the Supreme Court’s most prominent conservatives — and their relatives, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Panos Anastasiou, 76, was arrested Wednesday in Anchorage and faces 22 federal charges stemming from 465 alarming messages he sent through the Supreme Court’s website between March 10 and July 16, prosecutors said.

The justices are not identified in the indictment, but details of Anastasiou’s messages indicate that he targeted Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.

In one alleged message, sent on May 17, Anastasiou said he wanted to drive by a judge’s house with other Vietnam War veterans and spray the property with AR-15 fire.

“I hope N—– (Supreme Court Justice 1) and his white n—– loving insurrectionist wife are visiting,” he wrote, according to the indictment.

Thomas’ wife, Ginni, who is white, has been criticized for supporting Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through voter fraud.

The day before, Anastasiou appeared to reference a New York Times report that an upside-down American flag was flying outside Alito’s northern Virginia home after the 2020 vote, writing, “I would have had NO qualms about walking up to (Supreme Court Justice 2) and asking him not to take it down but to put a BULLET in that son of a bitch’s head.”

Another message, dated July 5, allegedly stated: “We should make (Supreme Court Justices 1-6) AFRAID, very AFRAID to leave their homes and fear for their lives every day,” court records show.

The Supreme Court is generally considered to have six conservative justices and three liberal justices, with the former consisting of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, in addition to Thomas and Alito.

Federal Election Commission documents show that Anastasiou has donated to ActBlue, a left-wing political action committee, dozens of times, most recently in July.

“We allege that the defendant made repeated and heinous threats of murder and torture against Supreme Court justices and their families in retaliation against them for decisions with which he disagreed,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“Our justice system depends on judges making decisions based on the law, not fear. Our democracy depends on public officials doing their jobs without fear for their lives or the safety of their families,” Garland said.

Anastasiou is charged with 13 counts of threatening in interstate commerce and nine counts of threatening a federal judge.

If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 155 years in prison.

The announcement of Anastasiou’s arrest and indictment comes just days after a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was foiled by a vigilant Secret Service agent conducting an advance patrol at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh is currently being held on two federal weapons charges and will make his next appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach on Monday.

Supreme Court justices are not immune to assassination attempts in the context of political turbulence.

In June 2022, authorities foiled a plot by Nicholas Roske to assassinate Kavanaugh after the high court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Roske was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland home with a Glock pistol, pepper spray, a hammer, a screwdriver, a crowbar, a tactical knife, two magazines of ammunition and more.

The trial of the alleged murderer is expected to begin in June 2025.

A Supreme Court spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.