The Justice Department has charged a Florida man with threatening to “assemble a Russian and Ukrainian hit team” to kill his political rival, Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, in 2021.
The department on Thursday released an indictment against William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, Fla., alleging he made a phone call on June 8, 2021 to Luna, identified in the indictment as Victim 1. ) and threatened to kill her multiple times. Call another person, Victim 2.
Mr. Braddock and Mr. Luna were candidates in the 2021 Republican primary election for Florida’s 13th Congressional District. Victim 2 was identified as a civilian and an acquaintance of Luna.
In 2021, the Associated Press reported that Luna claimed in a Florida court that Braddock had been stalking her and had threatened to harm her.
In her petition for a permanent restraining order at the time, Luna said she received text messages between Braddock and other people in which Braddock allegedly said he wanted to “take me out.” Luna added that others told her the text message “means he’s going to kill me.”
“I do not feel safe and my life is currently in danger from Mr. Braddock,” Luna said in the petition.
Mr. Braddock, who has since left the United States and lived in the Philippines, was recently deported to the United States and made his first court appearance Thursday in Los Angeles, according to the Justice Department.
Braddock was charged with interstate transmission of a genuine threat of harm to another person. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
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The case is being investigated as part of the Justice Department’s Election Threat Task Force. Launched in June 2021 to address threats of violence against election workers.
