The Justice Department announced an indictment Friday charging a Florida man with threatening to kill his political opponent in 2021. William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was charged with threatening two people, one of whom the DOJ identified as his primary opponent in the 2022 race for Florida’s 13th Congressional District. According to the indictment, Braddock promised to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make his primary opponent disappear.
The accused victims were not named in the DOJ’s indictment. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., one of Braddock’s primary opponents and eventual winner, said in court records filed in 2021 that Braddock was pursuing her and wanted her dead. In 2021, a Florida judge issued a temporary restraining order to Luna and Erin Olszewski, a conservative activist and friend. Braddock ended his campaign in 2021, shortly after the judge ordered the injunction. On Saturday, NBC News could not immediately reach Braddock for comment. It’s unclear if Braddock has entered a plea.
A Luna representative told NBC News that while her office could not comment on the matter, the congresswoman has “faced a growing number of death threats” in the previous month, pointing to a “broader and more disturbing issue of violence in the political arena.” An attorney for Olszewski did not immediately reply to calls for comment on Saturday afternoon. Braddock told the Pinellas County judge in 2021 that he opposed the injunction and wanted to “obtain, review, and validate” the information offered against him, claiming he didn’t “know what they have.”
Braddock departed the country after allegedly making the threats, and the DOJ later discovered him in the Philippines. He was then returned to the United States, where he made his first court appearance Thursday in Los Angeles, according to a DOJ news release. Braddock is charged with one count of interstate communication of a real threat to injure another person, and if convicted, he faces up to five years in jail, according to the DOJ. The case is part of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which met in 2021 to handle threats against election workers. The FBI’s Tampa field office is investigating the case, with assistance from the St. Petersburg Police Department, according to the Department of Justice. Luna is up for reelection on November 5. The Republican primary for her seat in August was canceled because Luna was the only candidate who qualified.
