The Justice Division arrests a Texas man for allegedly threatening Georgia election officers

The Justice Department on Friday arrested and charged a Texas man with making death threats he allegedly aimed at election and government officials in Georgia.

This is the first known arrest made by the department’s election threats task force, which was launched last summer.

Chad Christopher Stark, identified in the indictment as a resident of Leander, Texas, allegedly posted threatening messages on Craigslist.

“Georgia Patriots, it’s time to kill [Official A] the Chinese agent – $10,000,” one of Stark’s posts reportedly said.

“It’s time to invoke our Second Amendment, it’s time to put a bullet in the treacherous Chinese [Official A]. Then we work our way down [Official B] the local and corrupt federal judges… If we want our country back, we need to root out these people… we need to pay them a visit [Official C] and her family and put a bullet behind her ears,” he is quoted as saying in an indictment.

It’s not immediately clear who the state officials were who prosecutors say have identified Stark as his targets.

“The Department of Justice has a responsibility not only to protect the right to vote, but also to protect those who administer our electoral systems from violence and illegal threats of violence,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing Stark’s arrest. “The department’s Election Threats Task Force, working with partners across the country, will hold accountable those who violate federal laws by using force or threatening force to target poll workers who are performing their public duties.”

The Justice Department has come under increasing criticism lately for not being more aggressive in addressing a record wave of reported threats against poll officials and lawmakers in the wake of the 2020 election.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and FBI Assistant Director Luis Quesada spoke to reporters about the indictment. Polite said that since the task force’s launch last summer, investigators have reviewed more than 850 reports of threats against poll officials and are “following up persistent leads” from those referrals in “dozens” of open criminal investigations. He cannot count more precisely how many open investigations the task force currently has.

Asked by ABC News about criticism from some poll workers that the task force was not moving fast enough in pursuing these threats — with only one indictment in the six months since the task force started — Polite said that creating cases normally it required “months and months of work.”

“It’s important that these types of investigations are done properly,” Polite said. “We must ensure that any charges we bring are adequately supported by admissible evidence, and again often very substantial legal issues, which also affect First Amendment rights, must be considered.”

Quesada said the task force is currently investigating allegations of these types of threats “across the country,” but declined to say whether there were regions or states that appeared to be more epicenters that were under attack — like the seven swing States Won Biden, which former President Trump and his allies were working to overthrow.

They also declined to comment on the impact of Trump’s pressure campaign and targeting of officials in states that have refused to help him overturn their findings in escalating some of the threats against workers and officials could.

Georgia, in particular, became a hotbed for such threats as former President Donald Trump and his allies worked to pressure officials like GOP Governor Brian Kemp and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to reverse his loss to Joe Biden in the state.

Kemp, Raffensperger and Georgia’s electoral system implementation manager, Gabriel Sterling, all made emotional post-election appeals to those who were spreading conspiracy theories about vote counting to stop it — sometimes citing drastic death threats made against themselves, their families and… other elections were pronounced manpower.

Last June, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that the Justice Department would create a new law enforcement task force to respond to the growing number of threats against poll workers, administrators, officials and others connected to the election process .

Stark was scheduled to appear in court for the first time Friday in Austin, Texas, according to a Justice Department spokesman. He faces a charge of transmitting interstate threats, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He has not yet submitted a plea for the prosecution.

Copyright © 2022 ABC News Internet Ventures.