Queens Man Gets 19 Months for Threatening to Kill Senators

Brendan Hunt, a 37-year-old man from Ridgewood, Queens, was sentenced to 19 months in federal prison today for threatening to murder members of the United States Congress. The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen in Brooklyn, marks a hard line against violent rhetoric aimed at elected officials in the wake of the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

Hunt was convicted following a jury trial in April 2021—the first trial prosecuting threats directly tied to the aftermath of the Capitol attack. Federal prosecutors proved Hunt used the video platform BitChute to spread a message of violence, uploading a clip titled ‘KILL YOUR SENATORS’ with the summary ‘Slaughter them all.’ In the video, Hunt urged supporters to arm themselves and return to the Capitol, declaring, ‘We need to slaughter these m—–f—–s.’

The tirade didn’t stop there. Hunt called for the violent overthrow of the federal government, branding it a ‘Zionist Occupied Government’ and encouraging followers to ‘spray these m—–f—–s’ with bullets during President Joe Biden’s inauguration. ‘If anybody has a gun, give me it, I’ll go there myself and shoot them,’ he said, promising to replace senators with ‘actual patriots.’

A day after the initial post, on January 9, 2021, Hunt doubled down, warning that ‘those 100 Senators should really be afraid about going into public now.’ Citing the First and Second Amendments, he labeled senators ‘mass murdering psychopaths’ and claimed, ‘Every single one of them just needs to go.’

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, who oversaw the prosecution from the Eastern District of New York, made it clear: ‘We will not tolerate threats to members of the United States Congress or calls to overthrow our democratically elected government.’ FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll added that the sentence sends a clear warning—violence and intimidation have consequences.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David K. Kessler, Ian C. Richardson, and Francisco J. Navarro of the National Security and Cybercrime Section. Hunt, docketed as E.D.N.Y. 21-CR-086 (PKC), now faces years of supervised release following his prison term, a federal reminder that threats against public servants will be met with full force of the law.

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