Man arrested for threatening to kill Sen. Schumer, protesters, prosecutors say

Authorities arrested a man in New York after he threatened to kill “anyone that claims to be a democrat” and “blow up” the FBI on social media, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, including FBI agents and New York Police Department officers, arrested Brian Maiorana, 54, early Tuesday at his home on Staten Island.

Maiorana was charged in a federal complaint with threatening to kill and ordering others to kill protesters, law enforcement members and elected officials, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.), according to papers filed in the Eastern District of New York.

A judge in a Brooklyn federal court ordered his detainment pending a bail hearing, prosecutors said.

His attorney, James Darrow, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Family members of Maiorana could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Maiorana is being held behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while awaiting a Nov. 24 trial.

“The Department of Justice will not stand idly by when people like the defendant allegedly threaten to kill elected officials, lawful protesters and law enforcement simply because of animus towards the outcome of an election,” said Seth Ducharme, acting U.S. Attorney.

“Americans have a right to voice their opinions, but this Office will not tolerate violence or threats of violence used to intimidate others with whom they disagree,” he said.

Prosecutors said Maiorana took to social media to threaten law enforcement and elected officials from September up until a few days after the presidential election. The charges did not specify which social media platform Maiorana used to share his violent messages.

In October, Maiorana posted on social media that it has “come to point where pipe bombs need to be thrown into these mobs of potentially non violent violent protesters,” prosecutors said.

On Nov. 5 — as officials continued to count ballots — Maiorana said “carnage needs to come in the form of extermination of anyone that claims to be a democrat,” including family members, according to court papers.

Three days later, after media organizations projected Joe Biden as president-elect, Maiorana added: “The Turner Diaries must come to life,” referring to a 1978 novel about a violent coup of the U.S. government that culminated in a nuclear and race war where all non-white people were exterminated.

The anti-government novel has been an oft-cited influence among white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, as well as an inspiration for acts of terrorism, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, according to prosecutors.

Task force members found a semiautomatic pistol in their home raid, prosecutors said, but Maiorana was prohibited from owning firearms in New York after he was convicted of sexual assault in 2007.