Alaska Man Charged With Threatening 6 Supreme Court Justices

It remained unclear whether the man, Panos Anastasiou, came close to carrying out his threats, and public records indicate that he is not affiliated with any political party.

A 76-year-old convicted drug dealer from Alaska has been arrested after threatening to kill, drown, torture and lynch six Supreme Court justices and two of their family members, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

The indictment left the justices unnamed, though the court is dominated by a six-member conservative majority. It remained unclear whether the man, Panos Anastasiou, came close to carrying out his threats, and public records indicate that he is not affiliated with any political party.

Mr. Anastasiou is accused of sending more than 465 threatening messages from March 10, 2023, to July 16 of this year using the court’s public website. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 155 years in prison.

The messages “contained violent, racist and homophobic rhetoric coupled with threats of assassination via torture, hanging and firearms, and encouraged others to participate in the acts of violence,” the indictment said.

Mr. Anastasiou’s arrest comes as threats to public officials have escalated and after lawmakers expanded security for the justices in 2022, on the heels of the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

In April, a Florida man was sentenced to 14 months in prison for leaving a threatening message for one of the Supreme Court justices, later identified as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. In June 2022, a man from California armed with a gun and knife was arrested outside the Maryland home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. And in the past two months, there have been two apparent assassination attempts against former President Donald J. Trump.

According to the indictment unsealed on Wednesday, some of Mr. Anastasiou’s messages were meant to intimidate the justices and retaliate against them for their actions on the bench.

One series of messages began in early January, a day after Mr. Trump asked the Supreme Court to keep his name on the primary ballot in Colorado after the state’s top court declared he was ineligible because of his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. (In March, the justices unanimously ruled in Mr. Trump’s favor.)

In some instances, Mr. Anastasiou directed the threats to all six justices, according to the court filing. In others, they were directed at a specific justice or a few justices and a family member.

While the indictment does not identify the six justices, two members of the court — Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. — were featured prominently in the news when some of the messages were sent.

On May 10, Mr. Anastasiou is accused of sending a message threatening Supreme Court Justice 1, promising, “I’d like to see you have a real lynching, and I’ll donate the tree and pull the lever.”

That same day, Justice Thomas delivered a speech at a judicial conference in Alabama denouncing “the nastiness and the lies” that he said he and his wife have weathered in recent years.

Mr. Anastasiou is also accused of sending messages to Justice 1 and Justice 2 and family members 1 and 2 in mid-May. At the time, Justice Alito was under intense criticism after reports that an upside-down flag flew outside his home in January 2021, a symbol popular with Trump loyalists contesting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Justice Alito said his wife hung the flag. In an expletive-filled message on May 17, Mr. Anastasiou vowed to call Vietnam veterans and tell them to drive by the justice’s house with AR-15s and spray hundreds of rounds of bullets.

According to public records, Mr. Anastasiou was born in Athens, Greece, and came to Alaska in 1957 when he was adopted. He is divorced and has struggled with finances.

In 1990, Mr. Anastasiou drew the attention of law enforcement when he tried to buy real estate with $195,000 in cash that he carried with him in a box, according to news reports in The Anchorage Times. The next year, he faced drug trafficking charges for selling cocaine over a seven-year period and ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

During discussions about whether he should be released on bail, the assistant U.S. attorney who handled the case in Alaska said Mr. Anastasiou had a short temper and threatened people when he was angry.

“This is a guy who’s not quite straight in the head,” the prosecutor, Crandon Randell, said, according to a Jan. 9, 1991, report in The Anchorage Times. “That’s why we want him in jail.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.