A Queens man was sentenced for making violent threats online to assassinate Democratic officials in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Ridgewood resident Brendan Hunt, 37, was found guilty of his crimes in April 2021, which was the first trial to address the consequences of the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He was sentenced to serve 19 months in prison.
“We will not tolerate threats to members of the United States Congress or calls to overthrow our democratically elected government,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace. “Not only will we investigate and vigorously prosecute these crimes, but today’s sentence sends a clear message that those who seek to harm our representatives and bring chaos to our democracy will be punished.”
Just two days after the attack on the Capitol, Jan. 8, Hunt posted a video to BitChute titled “KILL YOUR SENATORS” that included the summary “Slaughter them all.” In the video, Hunt made dangerous threats calling on viewers to be violent and saying that “[w]e need to go back to the U.S. Capitol when all of the Senators and a lot of the Representatives are back there, and this time we have to show up with our guns. And we need to slaughter these m—–f—–s.”
Hunt also advocated for the violent overthrow of the federal government in the video, stating that “our government at this point is basically a handful of traitors . . . so what you need to do is take up arms, get to D.C., probably the inauguration . . . so called inauguration of this m—–f—–g communist Joe Biden . . . [T]hat’s probably the best time to do this, get your guns, show up to D.C., and literally just spray these m—–f—–s . . . put some bullets in their f——g heads.” Hunt stated, “If anybody has a gun, give me it, I’ll go there myself and shoot them and kill them . . . [W]e have to take out these Senators and then replace them with actual patriots. This is a [Zionist Occupied Government].”
On Jan. 9, 2021, Hunt posted another video where he stated “[t]hose 100 Senators should really be afraid about going into public now” and that “We have the first amendment, that’s still around, remember? And we have the second as well. There are really only a hundred of these weakling Senators. They are mass murdering psychopaths who are intent on our destruction, and they form an illegitimate government. Every single one of them just needs to go.”
