A Trump loyalist was found guilty of making death threats against lawmakers, including AOC, Pelosi, and Schumer
ByEliza Relman and Madison Hal
Brendan Hunt, a 37-year-old Trump loyalist from Queens, faces up to 10 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of making a death threat against elected officials.
Two days after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Hunt posted an 88-second video titled "KILL YOUR SENATORS: Slaughter them all" to BitChute, a platform popular on the far right. In the video, he called on viewers to travel to Washington, DC for President Joe Biden's inauguration and "spray these motherf------" with guns.
"If anybody has a gun, give me it," Hunt wrote. "I'll go there myself and shoot them and kill them."
In December 2020, Hunt demanded Trump hold a "public execution of pelosi aoc schumer etc," referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He said outside groups would kill the lawmakers if they weren't executed by the government. Hunt didn't participate in the Capitol riot.
That same day, Hunt posted another threatening comment in response to a New York Daily News article about a man who, infuriated by police enforcement of COVID-19 regulations, ran a police officer over with his car.
"Yeah booiii run those pigs over," Hunt wrote. "Anyone enforcing this lockdown mask vaccine bulls--- deserves nothing less than a bullet in their f------ head! Including cops! If you're going to shoot someone tho, go after a high value target like pelosi schumer or AOC. They really need to be put down."
Prosecutors argued that Hunt's speech is not constitutionally protected because he made detailed and specific violent threats. They also put forward evidence that he holds racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic beliefs.
Hunt's attorneys argued his rhetoric didn't amount to a serious threat and Hunt defended himself in court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, telling the jury that he was depressed and bored during the pandemic and had been using a lot of marijuana and alcohol. He said he was not sober while filming the video in which he made the death threats.
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