A New York man who is affiliated with the Proud Boys has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for making threats against Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia.
Eduard Florea of Queens pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Warnock and to illegally possessing ammunition, per an NBC News report. Florea posted the threats on Parler, a social media platform frequently used by conservatives to spread their divisive messages.
“Dead men can’t pass s— laws,” he wrote on Jan. 5 and 6. In additional messages, he made separate threats on Warnock’s life.
One said, “Warnock is going to have a hard time casting votes for communist policies when he’s swinging with the f—– fish,” according to the Washington Examiner.
“We need to regroup outside of DC and attack from all sides,” Florea wrote about the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. In another post, he wrote, “Guns cleaned loaded … got a bunch of guys all armed and ready to deploy.”
Florea reportedly planned to attend the insurrection, but his ride to Washington D.C. from New York never showed up.
His wife told lawyers for the government that he “was in a frenzy to join the attack” which left five people dead. She also said that he assaulted her because she refused to raise money for the Proud Boys.
Judge Eric R. Komitee ordered Florea to serve two years of supervision after he leaves prison.
In a statement, Breon Peace, the newly appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York said, “With today’s sentence, the defendant faces serious consequences for threatening the life of United States Senator Raphael Warnock as part of his effort to foment violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in connection with attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.”
Warnock, pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, was elected to the U.S. Senate in a special runoff election on Jan. 5.
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