One West Virginia The man on Thursday was sentenced to three years in federal prison after he emailed Dr. Anthony Faucic and another federal health official spoke about the coronavirus and efforts to prevent its spread.
Use an anonymous email account based in Switzerland, Thomas Patrick Connally, Jr. has threatened to kill Fauci or members of his family, the US Department of Justice said in a press release. One of his messages said they would be “dragged to the street, beaten to death and set on fire”.
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Another email said Fauci would be “hunted, captured, tortured and killed,” according to court documents.
Fauci is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Fauci is a strong advocate of vaccines and other preventive measures against COVID-19. He said he expected to retire at the end of Biden’s current term.
Another target was Dr. Francis Collins, director of the NIH at the time Connally was threatened. Collins and his family were threatened with physical assault and death if Collins continued to speak of the need for “compulsory” COVID-19 Ministry of Justice said.
Connally also admitted to sending threatening emails to Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s then-Secretary of Health, the Justice Department said. An unidentified public health official in Massachusetts and a religious leader in New Jersey were also threatened.
“People have the right to disagree, but you don’t have the right to threaten the life of a federal official,” Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, said in a statement.
US District Judge Paula Xinis sentenced Connally to 37 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Connally most recently lived in Snowshoe, West Virginia.
He was arrested last summer and pleaded guilty in May to threatening a federal official.
