A Maryland man has been arrested on suspicion of sending repeated
threats to harm Anthony Fauci, the United States' top infectious disease
expert.
According to a newly unsealed criminal complaint, Thomas Patrick
Connally, Jr., 56 sent a series of profanity-laden emails to Fauci,
director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID), and Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), in which he also rants about billionaires Bill Gates and
George Soros, per the complaint filed in U.S. District Court following
his arrest in West Virginia on Monday, July 26.
Some of the emails were sent via an encrypted email service based in
Switzerland and contained death threats. He started sending the threat
in 2020 and continued into this year, when the writer complained in
April about "mandatory vaccines" . The last email was sent July 21.
The first threatening email Connally allegedly sent to Fauci in December
2020 contained the subject line "Hope you get a bullet in your
compromised satanic skull."
Connally is accused of writing in another: "You and your entire family
will be dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire."
Fauci has advised two administrations (Trump and Biden) on the COVID-19
pandemic. He had to beef up his security last year as he has been
targeted by conspiracy theorists due to his role in advising the White
House on the pandemic.
Connally is due to have an initial appearance in US District Court on Wednesday July 28.
