Alaska man arrested for threatening Supreme Court justices

Panos Anastasiou, a 76-year-old man from Alaska, has been indicted for sending racist and violent threats to the six Supreme Court justices and their families. Federal prosecutors in Anchorage are requesting that he be kept in custody until trial due to the graphic threats he made, which intensified after the FBI questioned him about the messages he had been sending through the Supreme Court’s website. Anastasiou has pleaded not guilty to charges of threatening to assault, kidnap, and murder the justices and their family members. Court documents show that he sent over 465 threatening messages to the high court between March 2023 and July 2024, with the threats escalating in January, including mentions of assassinating the judges. The messages contained racial, homophobic, and misogynistic slurs, as well as lynching threats and use of the N-word targeting a Black justice, likely Clarence Thomas. Anastasiou’s defense attorney declined to comment. Prosecutors argue that he should remain in custody due to the risk he poses towards federal officials and the potential for violence against those he threatened. They claim that there is overwhelming evidence of his guilt, noting that he admitted to sending the messages, the IP information traced back to his home, and his name was in the email address. Anastasiou is scheduled for a detention hearing in court.

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