Nevada man charged with making threatening phone calls to a state election worker
By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN
The FBI arrested a Nevada man for allegedly making several threatening phone calls to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office on the morning after the attack on the US Capitol, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
This is the second person arrested by DOJ’s Elections Threats Task Force, which was launched last June to address the rise in threats against election officials. Election supervisors and the rank-and-file workers across the country have reported a barrage of threats spurred by falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
Prosecutors say Gjergi Luke Juncaj, 50, threatened an employee in the Elections Division during four phone calls on January 7, 2021. He was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas.
On one of the calls, according to the indictment, Juncaj told the employee in a raised voice, “I want to thank you for such a great job you all did on stealing the election. I hope you all go to jail for treason. I hope your children get molested. You are all going to f**king die.”
Juncaj made his initial court appearance Thursday at federal court in Las Vegas and pleaded not guilty to the charges, court records show, and he was released on a personal recognizance bond.
The Federal Public Defender’s Office was appointed as defense counsel, according to court records.
CNN reached out to the Public Defender’s Office late Thursday night for comment.
Earlier this month, DOJ prosecutors charged a Texas man who allegedly made threats against election workers in Georgia.
The Justice Department has dozens of ongoing investigations into threats against election workers around the country, and has received more than 850 referrals on such possible crimes, Kenneth Polite, the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, told reporters this month.
In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Evan Perez earlier this week, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco touted the efforts of the Justice Department’s recently formed task force on threats to election officials. “I’m concerned about the really disturbing nature of the threats that we’ve seen. They’ve been disturbingly aggressive, and violent and personal,” Monaco said.
She pointed to the first arrest by the task force, the Texas man charged earlier this month, and said, “Those charges were the first coming out of that task force but they will not be the last.”
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