A New Hampshire man who was charged with threatening to kill Vivek Ramaswamy and his supporters at a marketing campaign occasion has been indicted by a federal grand jury with further counts for threatening the lives of former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, one other unnamed presidential candidate and different individuals, in response to an indictment filed on Wednesday.
The person, Tyler Anderson, 30, of Dover, now faces three counts of transmitting threats for having texted loss of life threats to 3 presidential candidates campaigning in New Hampshire, the authorities say. The textual content messages have been despatched in three separate episodes in late November and early December. The final set of messages, despatched on Dec. 8, was directed at Mr. Ramaswamy.
Karl Rickett, a spokesman for the Christie marketing campaign, confirmed on Thursday that Mr. Christie was the goal of the second episode, on Dec. 6. The texts directed at Mr. Christie have been discovered on Mr. Anderson’s telephone, in response to an F.B.I. affidavit.
Mr. Anderson was arrested on Dec. 9 after federal brokers tracked textual content messages threatening Mr. Ramaswamy to his telephone and residential handle, the affidavit stated. His telephone was seized throughout the arrest, and the messages directed at Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Christie have been discovered on it. Firearms have been additionally seized throughout Mr. Anderson’s arrest.
In an interview with an F.B.I. agent after his arrest, Mr. Anderson acknowledged sending threatening messages to Mr. Ramaswamy and different presidential candidates, in response to the affidavit. The messages despatched to Mr. Christie’s marketing campaign, images of which have been included in courtroom paperwork, threatened to kill Mr. Christie and others at a marketing campaign occasion in a “mass shooting.” Officers redacted info within the images that might have recognized Mr. Christie because the goal.
The Christie marketing campaign beforehand declined to say it had been focused by the threats, however a marketing campaign assertion this month thanked regulation enforcement officers for “moving quickly to address these threats.”
Mr. Anderson was launched on Dec. 14 on the situation that he keep away from contact with presidential candidates and their campaigns. His arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 5.
Within the first incident, on Nov. 22, Mr. Anderson despatched a collection of textual content messages threatening to “impale” and “disembowel” an unnamed presidential candidate, in response to the indictment.
Mr. Anderson despatched further textual content messages on Dec. 8 threatening to kill a 3rd presidential candidate — later recognized as Mr. Ramaswamy — and attendees of a marketing campaign occasion scheduled in Portsmouth, federal prosecutors said. These texts have been despatched as replies to an automatic marketing campaign message, and so they implied that the risk could be carried out with a firearm. The threats to Mr. Christie have been additionally despatched as replies to an automatic marketing campaign message.
A workers member for the Ramaswamy marketing campaign reported the texts to the native police, and the F.B.I. performed the investigation that led to Mr. Anderson’s arrest.
Every of the three costs has a most sentence of 5 years in jail and three years of supervised launch, and a most superb of $250,000.
