- An Alaska man has been accused of sending a violent, threatening message to a current US senator.
- Arther Graham has been charged with making interstate threats to kidnap and injure a US senator.
An Alaska man has been accused of sending a violent message to a US senator using her website and threatening to "hunt" her down and wear her skin "like clothes," investigators allege in federal court documents.
Arther Graham, 46, a resident of Kenai, Alaska, was arrested earlier this week and federally charged with making interstate threats to kidnap and injure a current US senator in connection to the incident, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska said in a statement on Wednesday.
Graham's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Thursday.
According to an affidavit obtained by Insider, the threatening message was sent to the US senator, only identified by the pronoun "she" in the court documents, on September 28 through a web form submission.
It's not clear from the court documents which senator Graham is accused of targeting.
According to court documents, federal prosecutors allege that Graham began the message by saying that he was at risk of being evicted from his home and was "in the dark here."
"Until I get new information [United States Senator 1], my plan is ima' hunt you down, cut the flesh off your body and wear your skin like clothes," the message said, according to the affidavit.
"I'll live inside of YOU [United States Senator 1]. I may as well because I ain't got nowhere else to live," it continued, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the message said a bank was going to seize the suspect's parents' house and that when he inherits his mother's "municipal bonds," he would use them as "kindling to start my homeless-person campfire, when I inevitably become a homeless person like I was when I was a little boy."
"Also, I'm gonna cut off your skin and wear it as clothes. Oops I said that already. Someone call the police," the message went on to say, according to the court papers' allegations.
Days later, congressional staffers working in the Washington, DC, office for the unidentified senator who received the threat notified the US Capitol Police, court documents say.
Law enforcement was able to track the message — in which, federal prosecutors allege, the sender identified himself as "Arthur Graham" — back to the suspect, according to the court documents.
During an October 10 interview with FBI agents at his home in Kenai, Graham admitted that he sent the emails to the senator, the affidavit alleges.
"He admitted that he had stated in his email to United States Senator 1 that he would take her flesh off, use it as a coat, and live inside of her. Graham stated that he knew sending the message was against the law," the court documents say, alleging that Graham said he sent the emails using his cell phone.
If convicted of the crime, Graham faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.