Maryland teenager indicted for making death threats against Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris
- A Maryland man has been indicted on five counts of sending death threats to US senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders and lodging a threat on pro-gun reform protestors.
- Nicholas Bukoski, 19, sent threatening messages to the Instagram accounts of the senators and texted a threat to the DC metro police tip line, all on the day of the March for our Lives rally.
- He is currently being held in federal custody. A court date has not been set.
A 19-year old Maryland man has been indicted on charges of threatening to murder US Sens. Kamala Harrisand Bernie Sanders, two high-profile progressive members of Congress, as well as threatening an attack on the March For Our Lives Rally in Washington, DC.
A federal grand jury charged Nicholas Bukoski of Anne Arundel County on two counts of sending death threats to the senators, and three counts of transmitting these threats across state lines via interstate commerce.
According to a memorandum released by a federal prosecutor, Bukoski sent the threats to the official Instagram accounts of the senators and texted a menacing message to the DC metro police tip line on March 24, 2018. On that day, pro-gun reform rallies were taking place across the country.
Neither Harris nor Sanders were present at the march in Washington, DC. Harris attended the march in Los Angeles, and Sanders joined the rally taking place in Montpelier, Vermont.
"Senator, I would watch your back as you're out today," he wrote to Sanders' Instagram account, according to the memo. "You wouldn't want to be caught off guard when I use my second amendment protected firearm to rid the world of you, you stupid, crazy old fool."
The message to Harris' Instagram account read, "I am going to make sure you and your radical lefty friends never get back in power you will never run for president, because you won't make it to see that day."
A third communication sent by text to the DC metro police tip line read in part, "I am intending to send the message that gun control, bomb control, or any other kind of weapons control will not stop attacks, it is an issue of the heart."
After receiving the text, the metro police quickly tracked down Bukoski and took him to a local hospital for an emergency evaluation, upon which he admitted to sending the messages.
In a later search of his laptop, investigators found that he had looked up how to contact the senators and the tip line, as well as having visited the Wikipedia page titled "threatening government officials of the United States." Despite threatening to kill Sanders by firearm, Bukoski did not have access to a gun.
Bukoski appeared in the US district court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday and is currently being held in federal custody pretrial per request of the federal prosecutor who released the memo with details of the threats. A future court date has not yet been set.