Proud Boys follower indicted on charges of threatening Biden, Harris and SC judges
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A follower of the Proud Boys extremist group has been indicted by a federal grand jury for threatening the lives of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and two South Carolina federal judges.
Eric Rome, 33, an inmate in the S.C. Department of Corrections, also sent letters he said contained anthrax to the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregan, the eight-count indictment said.
Rome made some of the threats by telephone while an inmate in the S.C. Department of Corrections, the indictment said.
Rome, who is being held at Kirkland Correctional Institution, is serving a multi-year prison sentence for firearms violations and armed robbery. He is eligible to leave prison in 2030.
“Our intent is war on the federal government and specifically the assassination of the feds Marxist leaders Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Rome said on a voicemail left at a Department of Corrections phone.
Those two officials deserve punishment because of “the theft of the last presidential election, promoting critical race theory in our schools, the vax mandate and using Marxist media outlets, notably CNN, to brainwash our citizens,” the indictment quoted Rome as saying.
“Make America Great Again,” Rome said at the end of that message, quoting a Pro-Trump slogan.
The indictment also mentioned current federal Judge Joe Anderson, saying “we” — the Proud Boys and the Aryan Brotherhood — require him “to vacate the bench immediately; otherwise we will execute the old man and post videos of his death on as many web platforms as we can.”
The other federal judge was not identified in the indictment.
Anderson declined comment.
The Proud Boys are a far-right white nationalist organization. More than three dozen of its members, including its leader Enrique Tarrio, have been indicted on charges connected to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Aryan Brotherhood is a 20,000-member white supremacist prison gang, according to the South Poverty Law Center.
In September 2020, during a nationally-televised debate with then presidential candidate Biden, former President Donald Trump mentioned the Proud Boys, telling them to “stand back and stand by.”
Maximum penalties for each of the eight counts against Rome are five and 10 years in prison.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
