Thomas Patrick Connally, Jr., Threats Against Federal Official, Maryland 2021

Greenbelt, MD – Thomas Patrick Connally, Jr., 56, is facing federal charges for allegedly sending threatening emails to Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, the current Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A federal criminal complaint was filed on July 26, 2021, and unsealed today upon Connally’s arrest. He is expected to have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on Wednesday, July 28, 2021, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan.

“We will never tolerate violent threats against public officials,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lenzner. “Our public health officials deserve our thanks and appreciation for their tireless work, and we will not hesitate to bring charges against those individuals who seek to use fear to silence these public servants.”

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, from December 28, 2020, to July 21, 2021, Connally used an email account from a provider of secure, encrypted email services based in Switzerland to send a series of emails to Dr. Anthony Fauci, threatening to harm and/or kill him and members of his family. One of the emails threatened that Dr. Fauci and his family would be “dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire.”

On April 24, 2021, seven threatening emails were sent from the encrypted account between 10:05 p.m. and 10:12 p.m. Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the NIH, received a total of four threatening emails from the same encrypted email address associated with Connally just 30 minutes before the seven emails were sent to Dr. Fauci.

If convicted, Connally faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for threats against a federal official and a maximum of five years in federal prison for interstate communication containing a threat to harm.

A criminal complaint is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by criminal complaint is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

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