Charged with slew of threats

Alaska man is charged with slew of threats to Supreme Court justices

Panos Anastasiou is accused of sending threatening messages to six members of the court and two of their family members.

By Josh Gerstein

An Alaska man has been charged with unleashing a torrent of threats at six Supreme Court justices and at least two members of their families.

Panos Anastasiou, 76, of Anchorage, was arrested Wednesday on a federal indictment charging him with nine counts of threatening a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. He was scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon for a hearing on prosecutors’ request that he be detained pending trial.

Law enforcement officials have reported a recent spate of violent threats against judges and other public figures involved in high-profile cases. Over the past year, prosecutors have charged defendants with making death threats against three of the judges overseeing cases involving Donald Trump.

The case against Anastasiou stands out for the sheer volume of messages allegedly involved: more than 465 sent to the high court through its website between March 2023 and July 2024.

Many of the alleged threats were crude and racist, repeatedly using variants of the word “n----r” and making reference to lynching. The individual justices and their family members targeted were not named in the indictment. The court has two Black justices: Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“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 says.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the threats strike at the fabric of democracy by trying to instill fear in judges.

“Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear,” Garland said. “Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families.”

In the messages, Anastasiou described himself as a Vietnam veteran and referred to a previous negative experience with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a court filing, prosecutors said Anastasiou has a history of making similar threats “to the governor of another state.” Neither the state nor the governor were identified publicly.