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West Virginia resident Thomas Patrick Connally, Jr., 57, was sentenced to 37 months in prison by US District Judge Paula Xinis for making threats against a federal official, specifically for sending emails threatening to harm Fauci.
Connally also admitted to threatening Dr. Francis Collins, the former Director of the NIH, Dr. Rachel Levine, the former Secretary of Health for the State of Pennsylvania, a public health official in Massachusetts, and to a group working for a religious institution in Newark, NJ.
“Everyone has the right to disagree, but you do not have the right to threaten a federal official’s life,” Erek Barron, the US Attorney for the District of Maryland, said. “Threats like these will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
As part of his plea, Connally admitted that between Dec. 28, 2020, and July 25, 2021, Connally used an anonymous email account from a provider of secure, encrypted email services based in Switzerland, to send a series of emails to Fauci, the current Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to President.
In those emails, Connally threatened to harm and/or kill Fauci and members of his family, according to prosecutors.
One of the emails threatened that Fauci and his family would be “dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire,” prosecutors said On April 24, 2021, alone, Connally sent seven threatening emails starting at 10:05 p.m. at night.
According to the plea, Connally also admitted to threatening former NIH Director Francis Collins with multiple emails, threatening him and his family with physical assault and death if he did not stop speaking about the need for “mandatory” COVID-19 vaccinations.
Prosecutors said that the threats were made “with the intent to intimidate or interfere with the performance of their official duties and with the intent to retaliate for performing their official duties, including discussing COVID-19 and its testing and prevention.”
“Today’s sentencing shows that individuals threatening violence against federal officials and others will be held accountable for their crimes,” Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Christian Schrank of the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said.
“The public, including public servants, deserve the utmost safety and the assurance that they can perform their duties without interference."
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