Pennsylvania man charged with threatening to kill state political operative

By David Nakamura / The Washington Post

A Philadelphia man has been charged with threatening to kill a Pennsylvania state political party official who was recruiting poll watchers for the Nov. 5 election, the Justice Department announced Monday.

John C. Pollard, 62, was indicted last week on one count of transmitting interstate threats after prosecutors said he sent text messages to the official that included threats to “kill” and “skin” him.

The official, a Pennsylvania resident who was not named in the indictment, had posted his name and cellphone number on social media last month in an effort to sign up poll watchers. That message was copied to another social media site, which gave it a wider audience, authorities said. The indictment did not specify which political party the official was representing.

Mr. Pollard will be investigated and prosecuted in the Western District of Pennsylvania, where the victim resides, according to the indictment. 

Authorities said that on Sept. 6, Mr. Pollard contacted the official and expressed interest in signing up to be a poll watcher, then followed up with three threatening messages. In one message, Mr. Pollard is alleged to have written that he would skin the official alive and use the skin for bathroom tissue.

“I will KILL YOU IF YOU DON’T ANSWER Me!” Mr. Pollard wrote in another text, according to the indictment.

He faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.

The indictment is the 20th case brought by the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which Attorney General Merrick Garland launched in 2021 to bolster the federal response to election-related threats, which spiked in 2020.

The task force has since received more than 2,000 reports of threats from across the country, though authorities said the vast majority are protected by free-speech laws.

Twelve federal cases have resulted in convictions, with eight defendants sentenced to between one and four years in federal prison. Five people are awaiting sentencing. One case in Las Vegas ended in an acquittal last year, and seven are ongoing.