Alaska man charged with making death threats against Supreme Court justices

An Alaska man has been indicted on charges he sent racist and violent threats against the six Supreme Court justices and their family members.

Federal prosecutors in Anchorage are asking a judge to keep Panos Anastasiou, 76, locked up pending trial because of the graphic threats, which they say increased after FBI agents questioned him about the messages he'd been sending through the Supreme Court's website.

He's been charged with threatening to assault, kidnap and murder the six justices, as well as some of their family members, and has pleaded not guilty.

“We allege that the defendant made repeated, heinous threats to murder and torture Supreme Court Justices and their families to retaliate against them for decisions he disagreed with,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, adding that "democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families.” 

Court filings in the case allege that Anastasiou sent over 465 messages to the high court through its public website between March 10, 2023, and July 16, 2024.

They became increasingly more menacing this past January, including threats to assassinate the judges. Anastasiou also makes lynching threats and uses the N-word in statements aimed at a justice identified as "Supreme Court Justice 1" in the indictment, apparently referring to Clarence Thomas, who is Black.

The messages also included racial, homophobic and misogynistic slurs, the filings show.

Anastasiou's attorney, Jane Imholte of the federal public defender's office in Alaska, declined comment. Anastasiou is expected to appear in court later Thursday for a detention hearing.

Prosecutors argue Anastasiou should remain locked up because he "poses a risk of continuing to threaten federal officials" and said there "is also a danger he may wish to carry out some form of violence towards those he has previously threatened."

Their filing adds that the "evidence of guilt is overwhelming" in the case. "The defendant has admitted to sending the messages, the IP information leads to his house, and the email address contains the defendant’s name," the filing said.