U.S. Election Threat Task Force promises stress test in flammable year | 2024 U.S. Election
SShortly before midnight on February 14, 2021, James Clark tapped a message on his computer at his home in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. It would change his own life and shatter the peace of mind of several others.
Clark, then 38, was surfing the Internet while drinking and taking drugs. His social media platforms were filled with heated debates over Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Five days earlier, President Trump's second impeachment trial began on charges that he incited the riot at the U.S. Capitol.Entering a state of fierce battle arizona Online discussion was especially loud, with conspiracy theories floating around that the vote count had been rigged.
Clark lived 4,700 miles from Phoenix, Arizona's capital, but felt he had to intervene. He found a contact page for the state's top elections official and wrote, “The Attorney General must resign by 9 a.m. on Tuesday, February 16th, or an explosive device shocked into her personal space.” will explode.''
He then signed the message “Donny Dee” and hit send.
Clark's bomb threat was discovered two days later and had an immediate seismic effect. Terrified employees fled the state executive branch, sniffer dogs searched multiple floors, and top state officials were forced to evacuate.
Four months after the panic at the Arizona government building, the U.S. Department of Justice circulated the following document: memo To all federal prosecutors and FBI agents. “There has been a significant increase in threats of violence against Americans administering free and fair elections,” the memo said.
The growing threat amounted to a “threat to democracy.” We will swiftly and vigorously prosecute violators. ”
The memo announced the creation of a new unit within the Justice Department, the Election Threat Task Force. That mission exposed Trump's lies about stealing the 2020 election, a phenomenon that barely existed before he exposed violent and abusive messages, including death threats, specifically targeting election officials and their families. The aim was to respond to
The task force was conceived as an elite multidisciplinary team that brings together experts from across the Department of Justice and works with local FBI and U.S. Attorney's offices. Its mission is to protect election officials from the threats posed by President Trump by harshly condemning perpetrators.
As the November presidential election approaches, the task force faces its biggest challenge yet. Trump is back on the ballot, and his approval ratings remain strong in battleground states like Arizona. upset over refusal to votefederal troops are on the front lines in what is expected to be a flammable election year.
A lot is riding on it.The Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute., estimates that an average of three election officials have quit their jobs every two days since 2020. This equates to about one in five election officials nationwide resigning in the face of toxic hostility.
“What the Election Threat Task Force does this year is going to be very important,” said Lawrence Norden, the organization's senior director. brennan center Elections and government planning. “They have the biggest megaphone and they need to use it to make it clear that threats of violence against election workers are illegal and will not be tolerated.”
The task force's day-to-day efforts are led by Principal Deputy Director John Keller. Public order section Person from the Criminal Division of the Ministry of Justice. As an election year approaches, Keller says he is “incredibly concerned” about the erosion of confidence in some segments of American society and, by extension, election officials, in the outcome of the election. The team is preparing for any eventuality.
“Criminal intimidation that threatens election workers or attempts to change their behavior or the way they carry out their essential duties is a serious issue,” he told the Guardian. “In the current climate, the election community feels attacked and scared, and the department knows that.”
As part of these preparations, the Election Threat Countermeasures Headquarters is increasing communication with election officials in each region. Since its inception, the team has conducted more than 100 trainings and worked with election officials and local prosecutors to share knowledge on how to respond to hostile attacks.
Over the next eight months, the task force will continue a series of tabletop exercises in which federal experts and their community partners will conduct a series of field exercises, ranging from serious death threats aimed at election officials to bomb threats against polling places and polling places. Role-play how to respond to the worst-case scenario. Other election infrastructure. Similar war games play out what would happen if a cybersecurity attack occurred or attempted to take down the power grid on Election Day.
The core of the task force's work is criminal prosecution of the most serious threats against election staff and volunteers. In nearly three years, the unit has prosecuted 16 cases involving 18 defendants, two of whom are defendants. woman.
So far, 10 perpetrators have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 30 days to three and a half years. Three more people have pleaded guilty and five people are indicted and awaiting plea deals or trial.
Clark was sentenced to three and a half years in prison earlier this month for making a bomb threat in Arizona.at his place sentencing hearing In U.S. District Court in Phoenix, prosecutors with the Election Threat Task Force said that within minutes of Clark sending the threat, he was searching online for information on “how to kill” the then-Secretary of State. He called for punishment with a strong deterrent effect.
Arizona is a stronghold for election threats, accounting for seven of the task force's 16 prosecutions.on monday joshua russell In 2022, he was sentenced in federal court in Phoenix to 30 months in prison for leaving a series of voicemails for Katie Hobbs, the current Democratic governor of Arizona and then secretary of state.
he said: “Your days are numbered. America is coming for you, communist traitor. You will pay with your life.”
One of the striking features of this task force is that it has resulted in relatively few prosecutions compared to the trove of hostile communications dumped on the election community during the Trump administration. In its early stages, the unit called on election offices across the country to forward all offensive material to its Washington headquarters, and was flooded with thousands of obscene, abusive and hostile messages.
However, a review of the reports found that up to 95% did not meet the criteria for prosecution or even criminal investigation. This standard was set by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2003 decision. virginia v blackThis paper weighed the need to protect public officials from criminal threats of violence against the strong First Amendment protections for political speech.
The court's conclusion was that for a communication to be a crime, it must pose a “genuine threat.” The judges defined this as “a serious expression of intent to commit an act of unlawful violence.”
While most of the messages reviewed by the task force were certainly distressing and inappropriate, their analysis did not meet the criteria for criminality. They were indirect rather than direct, implicit rather than explicit, vague and ambitious rather than a declaration of active intent to commit unlawful violence.
“The difference between what is subject to criminal prosecution and what is perceived as a threat to election officials on the ground is an issue unique to this field. Compare the thousands of hostile communications we have received. So that's close to a dozen things that could potentially be acted upon,” Keller said.
Despite the legal complexities of a “real threat,” some on the receiving end of the abuse are calling for more urgent action. Adrian Fontes, Arizona's current secretary of state whose office has been the target of some of the most serious threats, said it took federal prosecutors a “tremendous amount of time” to finalize a sentence. “There are,” he told the Guardian.
He called for tougher penalties and an expansion of the scope of what constitutes criminal intimidation of election officials. “I don't know if the federal bureaucracy is agile enough. They're not treating this like domestic terrorism,” he said.
Bill Gates, the Republican supervisor of Maricopa County, Arizona's largest election district, which covers Phoenix, resigned from his job as election director after the November election, in part because of the horrific threats he and his family received. Resign. He also called for increasing the intensity of the task force's activities at this critical moment.
“I appreciate what they've done, but I feel they can do more,” he said. “We all know that the indictment on January 6th [over the attack on the US Capitol] They're very aggressive and well known, so we want to see a similar level of response when it comes to threats against election workers. ”
The task force said the 12 to 24 month lead time for prosecuting election intimidation charges is similar to other federal cases, ranging from violent crimes to fraud. Keller agreed that deterrence is essential.
“Incident deterrence is critical. As with most things in most fields, we believe we can do more and do better, and to maximize that deterrence effect. “We're trying to come up with new ways to bring more attention to this effort,” he said.
It is not only legal constraints that affect the number and speed of prosecutions, but there are other technical hurdles that task forces must negotiate. It can be difficult to identify perpetrators using foreign internet service providers or burner phones to disguise themselves, and subpoenas seeking information from companies like Facebook, Twitter, Verizon and AT&T typically take six to eight weeks. It takes.
In response to these obstacles, the task force aims to improve communication between the central Department of Justice and the 56 FBI field offices and 94 U.S. attorney's offices across the country to improve resilience against the anti-democratic onslaught. I want to strengthen my power. Each FBI office has an election crime coordinator who works in conjunction with the task force's election community liaison officers.
The network is used to share information on how to combat growing problems such as swatting (false calls to 911 to report crimes or fires in the homes of government employees). A list of potential swatting targets in sensitive areas like Maricopa County is being created so that officers are aware of potentially false calls as soon as they come in. .
The Brennan Center's Norden said the relationship between beleaguered local election officials and a powerful federal center will be more important than ever as the election year intensifies. “The existence of the task force allows election officials to know that the federal government has their backs. Many of them, especially in the immediate aftermath, felt abandoned. That was very important.”
Summarize this content to 100 words SShortly before midnight on February 14, 2021, James Clark tapped a message on his computer at his home in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. It would change his own life and shatter the peace of mind of several others.Clark, then 38, was surfing the Internet while drinking and taking drugs. His social media platforms were filled with heated debates over Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.Five days earlier, President Trump's second impeachment trial began on charges that he incited the riot at the U.S. Capitol.Entering a state of fierce battle arizona Online discussion was especially loud, with conspiracy theories floating around that the vote count had been rigged.Clark lived 4,700 miles from Phoenix, Arizona's capital, but felt he had to intervene. He found a contact page for the state's top elections official and wrote, “The Attorney General must resign by 9 a.m. on Tuesday, February 16th, or an explosive device shocked into her personal space.” will explode.''He then signed the message “Donny Dee” and hit send.Clark's bomb threat was discovered two days later and had an immediate seismic effect. Terrified employees fled the state executive branch, sniffer dogs searched multiple floors, and top state officials were forced to evacuate.Four months after the panic at the Arizona government building, the U.S. Department of Justice circulated the following document: memo To all federal prosecutors and FBI agents. “There has been a significant increase in threats of violence against Americans administering free and fair elections,” the memo said.The growing threat amounted to a “threat to democracy.” We will swiftly and vigorously prosecute violators. ”The memo announced the creation of a new unit within the Justice Department, the Election Threat Task Force. That mission exposed Trump's lies about stealing the 2020 election, a phenomenon that barely existed before he exposed violent and abusive messages, including death threats, specifically targeting election officials and their families. The aim was to respond toThe task force was conceived as an elite multidisciplinary team that brings together experts from across the Department of Justice and works with local FBI and U.S. Attorney's offices. Its mission is to protect election officials from the threats posed by President Trump by harshly condemning perpetrators.As the November presidential election approaches, the task force faces its biggest challenge yet. Trump is back on the ballot, and his approval ratings remain strong in battleground states like Arizona. upset over refusal to votefederal troops are on the front lines in what is expected to be a flammable election year.A lot is riding on it.The Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute., estimates that an average of three election officials have quit their jobs every two days since 2020. This equates to about one in five election officials nationwide resigning in the face of toxic hostility.Law enforcement officers stand guard outside the Maricopa County Counting and Elections Center in Phoenix, Nov. 8, 2022. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images”What the Election Threat Task Force does this year is going to be very important,” said Lawrence Norden, the organization's senior director. brennan center Elections and government planning. “They have the biggest megaphone and they need to use it to make it clear that threats of violence against election workers are illegal and will not be tolerated.”The task force's day-to-day efforts are led by Principal Deputy Director John Keller. Public order section Person from the Criminal Division of the Ministry of Justice. As an election year approaches, Keller says he is “incredibly concerned” about the erosion of confidence in some segments of American society and, by extension, election officials, in the outcome of the election. The team is preparing for any eventuality.”Criminal intimidation that threatens election workers or attempts to change their behavior or the way they carry out their essential duties is a serious issue,” he told the Guardian. “In the current climate, the election community feels attacked and scared, and the department knows that.”As part of these preparations, the Election Threat Countermeasures Headquarters is increasing communication with election officials in each region. Since its inception, the team has conducted more than 100 trainings and worked with election officials and local prosecutors to share knowledge on how to respond to hostile attacks.Over the next eight months, the task force will continue a series of tabletop exercises in which federal experts and their community partners will conduct a series of field exercises, ranging from serious death threats aimed at election officials to bomb threats against polling places and polling places. Role-play how to respond to the worst-case scenario. Other election infrastructure. Similar war games play out what would happen if a cybersecurity attack occurred or attempted to take down the power grid on Election Day.The core of the task force's work is criminal prosecution of the most serious threats against election staff and volunteers. In nearly three years, the unit has prosecuted 16 cases involving 18 defendants, two of whom are defendants. woman.So far, 10 perpetrators have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 30 days to three and a half years. Three more people have pleaded guilty and five people are indicted and awaiting plea deals or trial.Clark was sentenced to three and a half years in prison earlier this month for making a bomb threat in Arizona.at his place sentencing hearing In U.S. District Court in Phoenix, prosecutors with the Election Threat Task Force said that within minutes of Clark sending the threat, he was searching online for information on “how to kill” the then-Secretary of State. He called for punishment with a strong deterrent effect.Arizona is a stronghold for election threats, accounting for seven of the task force's 16 prosecutions.on monday joshua russell In 2022, he was sentenced in federal court in Phoenix to 30 months in prison for leaving a series of voicemails for Katie Hobbs, the current Democratic governor of Arizona and then secretary of state.he said: “Your days are numbered. America is coming for you, communist traitor. You will pay with your life.”One of the striking features of this task force is that it has resulted in relatively few prosecutions compared to the trove of hostile communications dumped on the election community during the Trump administration. In its early stages, the unit called on election offices across the country to forward all offensive material to its Washington headquarters, and was flooded with thousands of obscene, abusive and hostile messages.A Trump supporter carrying a gun participates in a protest outside the Maricopa Counting and Elections Center in Phoenix on November 5, 2020. Photo: Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesHowever, a review of the reports found that up to 95% did not meet the criteria for prosecution or even criminal investigation. This standard was set by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2003 decision. virginia v blackThis paper weighed the need to protect public officials from criminal threats of violence against the strong First Amendment protections for political speech.The court's conclusion was that for a communication to be a crime, it must pose a “genuine threat.” The judges defined this as “a serious expression of intent to commit an act of unlawful violence.”While most of the messages reviewed by the task force were certainly distressing and inappropriate, their analysis did not meet the criteria for criminality. They were indirect rather than direct, implicit rather than explicit, vague and ambitious rather than a declaration of active intent to commit unlawful violence.”The difference between what is subject to criminal prosecution and what is perceived as a threat to election officials on the ground is an issue unique to this field. Compare the thousands of hostile communications we have received. So that's close to a dozen things that could potentially be acted upon,” Keller said.Despite the legal complexities of a “real threat,” some on the receiving end of the abuse are calling for more urgent action. Adrian Fontes, Arizona's current secretary of state whose office has been the target of some of the most serious threats, said it took federal prosecutors a “tremendous amount of time” to finalize a sentence. “There are,” he told the Guardian.He called for tougher penalties and an expansion of the scope of what constitutes criminal intimidation of election officials. “I don't know if the federal bureaucracy is agile enough. They're not treating this like domestic terrorism,” he said.Bill Gates, the Republican supervisor of Maricopa County, Arizona's largest election district, which covers Phoenix, resigned from his job as election director after the November election, in part because of the horrific threats he and his family received. Resign. He also called for increasing the intensity of the task force's activities at this critical moment.”I appreciate what they've done, but I feel they can do more,” he said. “We all know that the indictment on January 6th [over the attack on the US Capitol] They're very aggressive and well known, so we want to see a similar level of response when it comes to threats against election workers. ”The task force said the 12 to 24 month lead time for prosecuting election intimidation charges is similar to other federal cases, ranging from violent crimes to fraud. Keller agreed that deterrence is essential.Bill Gates, chairman of Maricopa's Board of Supervisors, spoke to the media in 2022. One of the reasons he quits his job is the threats against him and his family. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images“Incident deterrence is critical. As with most things in most fields, we believe we can do more and do better, and to maximize that deterrence effect. “We're trying to come up with new ways to bring more attention to this effort,” he said.It is not only legal constraints that affect the number and speed of prosecutions, but there are other technical hurdles that task forces must negotiate. It can be difficult to identify perpetrators using foreign internet service providers or burner phones to disguise themselves, and subpoenas seeking information from companies like Facebook, Twitter, Verizon and AT&T typically take six to eight weeks. It takes.In response to these obstacles, the task force aims to improve communication between the central Department of Justice and the 56 FBI field offices and 94 U.S. attorney's offices across the country to improve resilience against the anti-democratic onslaught. I want to strengthen my power. Each FBI office has an election crime coordinator who works in conjunction with the task force's election community liaison officers.The network is used to share information on how to combat growing problems such as swatting (false calls to 911 to report crimes or fires in the homes of government employees). A list of potential swatting targets in sensitive areas like Maricopa County is being created so that officers are aware of potentially false calls as soon as they come in. .The Brennan Center's Norden said the relationship between beleaguered local election officials and a powerful federal center will be more important than ever as the election year intensifies. “The existence of the task force allows election officials to know that the federal government has their backs. Many of them, especially in the immediate aftermath, felt abandoned. That was very important.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/31/new-election-threats-taskforce-trump-subversion U.S. Election Threat Task Force promises stress test in flammable year | 2024 U.S. Election
