Arizona Man Arrested for Making Online Threats Against Federal Agents and Employees

[Gunnar Larson]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/arizona-man-arrested-making-online-threats-against-federal-agents-and-employees


For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs
Michael Lee Tomasi, 37, of Rio Verde, Arizona, was arrested on Friday after
a grand jury indicted him on three counts of threats against a federal
official and three counts of making interstate threats.

According to court documents, from May 2021 through November 2023, while
living in Colorado and Arizona, Tomasi used a social media platform to
express a desire to incite violence and threaten a variety of individuals
and groups, including elected officials, a judge, and federal officials and
law enforcement officers. The charges against Tomasi relate to threats he
made in Arizona to federal law enforcement agents and employees.

“The threats of violence against public officials alleged in this
indictment are abhorrent,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The
defendant is specifically charged with threatening to kill FBI agents and
other FBI employees just for doing their jobs. I am deeply proud of the
work the FBI does every day; its personnel should not have to deal with
threats against themselves as they work to protect the American people. The
Justice Department will not stand for such heinous behavior and will
prosecute threats against its employees to the fullest extent of the law.”

“In this country, there’s a right way and a wrong way to express your views
under the Constitution, and violence or threats of violence is not it,”
said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The men and women of the FBI work
tirelessly and selflessly to protect others every day, and we will continue
to work with our partners to hold accountable those who make violent
threats against them or any of our colleagues in law enforcement.”

“Threats against law enforcement personnel like those alleged in this
indictment are not just polemics, they are illegal under federal law and
corrosive to civic life and dialogue,” said U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino for
the District of Arizona.

If convicted, Tomasi faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine for each count of making threats against a federal official,
and a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each
count of making interstate threats.

The FBI is investigating the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
District of Arizona is handling the prosecution.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent
until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Updated December 18, 2023
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