Federal agents have arrested a man for allegedly sending threatening emails with derogatory slurs to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
Thomas Patrick Connally Jr. was charged on Monday with threats against a federal official and interstate communication containing a threat to harm, according to the criminal complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
The Office of Inspector General for the US Department of Health and Human Services began providing “protective operations” around Fauci in March 2020, as “a growing number of threats” were directed at him, according to the criminal complaint. Fauci also is chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.
Connally, 56, is expected to have an initial appearance in US District Court in Greenbelt on Wednesday before Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan. An attorney has not been listed for Connally, according to online records.
The emails were sent through an encrypted email service based in Switzerland, according to the criminal complaint. The investigation revealed that the encrypted email account was associated with Connally, the Justice Department said.
Fauci began receiving the threatening messages to his work email at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December 2020, the first of which came with the subject line: “Hope you get a bullet in your compromised satanic skull today,” according to the complaint. In the email, the sender called Fauci an “elf” and “a lying sack of s***.”
Another series of emails from the same account were sent to Fauci in April 2021, threatening his family if he talked about “mandatory vaccines.”
According to the affidavit, Connally also used a separate email account to communicate with another individual about Fauci, claiming the doctor was engaged in fraud regarding HIV and AIDS.
The most recent email was sent on July 21, according to the criminal complaint.
If convicted, Connally faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
