U.S. Capitol Police have arrested a Fairfax, Virginia, man for faxing death threats against President Donald Trump to nearly a dozen members of Congress, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).
The faxes also included threats against the congressional offices that received the letters, according to an affidavit from a special agent with the U.S. Capitol Police.
Adam Albrett is charged with making threatening interstate communications and a threat to injure another person.
Albrett was imprisoned in 2010 after being charged with making death threats against President Barack Obama. But federal authorities released him just weeks later. The charges against him were dropped after a panel of mental health evaluators at Butner Federal Prison in North Carolina ruled he "would not present a substantial risk."
Court filings do not show if Albrett has entered a plea in the newly filed case. His attorney did not immediately return requests for comment. A judge has ordered Albrett detained until his Aug. 31 arraignment.
The U.S. Capitol Police affidavit alleges a long history of threats by Albrett against members of Congress, including a threatening phone to a senator's D.C. office in 2015.
According to the affidavit, Albrett wrote vulgar phrases about Trump and pledged to "kill within five days." One of the faxes said, "It’s simply not right that the illegitimate (vulgarity)-grabbing … Jewish Messiah Trump is being treated differently. Well what do I have to do to get the Secret Service to take my threats seriously?"
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The affidavit specifies that the office of Sen. Cotton received one of the faxes.
The affidavit said police traced the fax to Albrett through a LexisNexis search of the phone number listed in the fax header.
An I-Team review of U.S. Justice Department and U.S. courts records shows federal prosecutors have charged at least 21 people with making threats against Trump since January 2017.
