A man who spent several weeks camped out in the Financial District’s Zuccotti Park in September, 2011, as part of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, has been convicted by a federal trial jury of threatening to assault and murder members of the United States Congress.
On April 28, following a one-week trial in the federal court for the Eastern District of New York, located in Brooklyn, Brendan Hunt (who called himself “X-Ray Ultra” in online postings) was also found guilty of threatening to retaliate against these elected officials on account of performance of their official duties.
Mr. Hunt first came to the attention of federal authorities two days after the January 6 riot, during which supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, in an attempt to prevent Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election from being officially certified.
On January 8, 2021, Mr. Hunt posted to BitChute — an online hosting service known as a magnet for far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists, as well for hosting hateful content — a video with the title, “Kill Your Senators,” which included the exhortation, “Slaughter Them All.” In that video, Mr. Hunt urged his viewers to violent action: “we need to go back to the U.S. Capitol when all of the Senators and a lot of the Representatives are back there, and this time we have to show up with our guns. And we need to slaughter these motherfuckers.” Mr. Hunt also advocated the violent overthrow of the federal government, claiming that “our government at this point is basically a handful of traitors… so what you need to do is take up arms, get to D.C., probably the inauguration… so called inauguration of this mother-fucking communist Joe Biden. That’s probably the best time to do this, get your guns, show up to D.C., and literally just spray these motherfuckers… put some bullets in their fucking heads.”
On that video, Mr. Hunt added a request: “If anybody has a gun, give me it, I’ll go there myself and shoot them and kill them… We have to take out these Senators and then replace them with actual patriots.” He also alleged that the United States is being led by, “a Zionist Occupied Government.” Further investigation showed that Mr. Hunt had downloaded multiples tracts espousing violent white supremacist and anti-Semitic views, including Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and the manifesto written by Dylan Roof, the perpetrator of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, in which he killed nine African Americans.
Once federal investigators began inquiring into Mr. Hunt’s online activities, they uncovered a broad range of posts stretching back more than a month on various social media platforms, threatening Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives; Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer; and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
On December 6, 2020, he posted multiple messages to his Facebook account, the first calling Speaker Pelosi, Senator Schumer, and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez “high-value targets,” and stating: “they really need to be put down. These commies will see death before they see us surrender.” A second message called on former President Donald Trump to hold a public execution of Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Schumer, and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. He added, “if you don’t do it, the citizenry will. We’re not voting in another rigged election. Start up the firing squads, mow down these commies, and let’s take America back.”
At his March 1 arraignment, Mr. Hunt pleaded not guilty to these charges, and federal judge Pamela Chen refused a request by his attorney that Mr. Hunt to be released before trial.
During his trial, Mr. Hunt testified as a witness for his defense, arguing that his online statements were not meant to be taken seriously, especially given the context of extremist online rhetoric. He also claimed that drug use and depression were factors in his conduct. The jury, which deliberated for only three hours before returning a guilty verdict, appeared to be unconvinced.
Mr. Hunt is slated to be sentenced on June 22. He is facing up to ten years in jail.
Matthew Fenton
