Man Who Sent Bomb Threat to Arizona Election Officials Jailed for 42 Months – In 2021, a man from Massachusetts, who issued threats to detonate explosives targeting the secretary of state of Arizona, has been given a sentence of three and a half years in federal prison.
This marks one of the harshest penalties imposed so far for the surge of violent threats against election officials stemming from Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. James Clark, aged 38, received his sentence at the federal district court in Phoenix on Tuesday, consisting of 42 months of incarceration, followed by three years of probation.
Judge Michael Liburdi emphasized that Clark’s online bomb threat had caused significant emotional and psychological distress to government workers, necessitating a punitive sentence to safeguard the integrity of democracy. Liburdi noted the abundance of recent threats against election officials in Arizona, leading to resignations.
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“If we do not have good people to fill these positions who are committed to the delivery of fair elections, we lose our ability to govern ourselves,” the judge said. Prosecution was conducted by the election threats task force, a specialized unit within the Department of Justice.
Established in 2021, the task force addresses the surge of intimidation against election officials following baseless claims by the former president about the 2020 presidential election. The three-and-a-half-year prison term imposed on Tuesday matches the severity of the previous toughest sentence obtained by the task force.
In August, Francis Goetz of Texas received a comparable punishment for issuing multiple threats against Arizona election officials on extremist social media platforms. Clark issued his bomb threat a week after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. In his plea agreement, he confessed to accessing the website of the then-Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, now Arizona’s governor.
He demanded her resignation within 48 hours, threatening detonation of an explosive device in her vicinity. Shortly after sending the threat, Clark searched online for Hobbs’s home address, followed by inquiries on “how to kill.” Days later, he searched for information on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
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Upon discovery of Clark’s threat, two floors of the Arizona government building were evacuated, and then-Governor Doug Ducey took shelter. Security measures were implemented at Hobbs’s residence and vehicle. Before sentencing, a statement from the current Arizona Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, was presented to the court, highlighting the fear and anxiety experienced by office employees due to the bomb threat.
“It makes each of us feel vulnerable, and that trauma does not abate over time. This type of threat is anti-American and a threat to democracy,” Fontes said. Tanya Senanayake, a trial attorney from the public integrity section of the Justice Department who handled the case, advocated for a prison term of nearly five years.
She argued that a strong deterrent was necessary to shield public officials from “a growing trend of threats to their lives and to the safety of their families”. In contrast, defense attorney Jeanette Alvarado underscored that Clark was struggling with substance abuse issues, including alcohol and drugs, at the time of the incident.
Alvarado noted that Clark has since undergone rehabilitation and has remained sober for the past three years. Clark himself addressed the judge and said that when he made the bomb threat “I was not the person I wanted to be. I am deeply, deeply ashamed.”
Since Trump became the first president in US history to refuse to relinquish power, election administrators and their families have faced a barrage of verbal and online assaults. According to a study conducted by the Brennan Center last year, nearly one in three election officials reported being threatened or harassed, and almost half expressed concerns about the safety of their colleagues and staff.
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Arizona has been particularly affected by this wave of harassment. In two separate incidents last month, the FBI apprehended individuals in Alabama and California accused of making violent threats against election officials in Maricopa County, the largest constituency in Arizona encompassing Phoenix.
On March 25, there will be another federal sentencing hearing in Phoenix concerning Joshua Russell, 44, from Bucyrus, Ohio. Russell pleaded guilty to leaving three threatening voicemails in August 2022 directed at an unnamed election official in the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
