A 26-year-old Ohio man has been charged with calling for the death of President Donald Trump and threatening to travel to a congressman’s home, set it ablaze, and behead him and his family while they slept, according to federal authorities.
Alex Justin Miller was taken into custody and hit with one count of interstate transmission of a threat to injure, the Justice Department announced.
Investigators with the FBI launched a probe into Miller after the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office reached out on Aug. 18 about a threatening email Miller allegedly sent to the congressman, who is identified as “Victim 1” in court records filed in the Middle District of Florida.
Cincinnati-based Fox affiliate WXIX identified the congressman as Florida Republican Randy Fine.
The email went out at 9:02 a.m. from an account that investigators later traced back to Miller. Its subject line read, “Can’t wait to snipe your head off your shoulders!!:),” and the body stated, in part:
Dear f, piece of s,stain, I cannot wait to take a trip to your lovely home and light the whole place on fire and murder you and your entire family in the middle of the night while you sleep. I hope you disgusting Nazi f,s sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life because I will NEVER stop until your head is hanging from the rooftops of White House. You deserve 10000% to be beheaded and have your body paraded through the streets.
The message ended with an all-caps statement directed at both the congressman and the president: “DEATH TO [VICTIM 1] AND DEATH TO DONALD TRUMP!!!”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office filed emergency disclosure requests with Google and Charter Communications to obtain information linked to the Gmail account and the internet connection used to access it, the complaint states.
Google records revealed that the account was tied to a Google Voice telephone number and Google Pay records that listed the subscriber as Alex Miller, according to the complaint. An open-source search of the phone number connected it to Miller as well.
Google login records indicated the Gmail account had been accessed from an IP address that Charter Communications linked to a service address on Arden Forest Lane in Columbus, the complaint said.
Prosecutors noted that the Ohio Department of Motor Vehicle records listed the same address as Miller’s current driver’s license address.
Investigators also identified Cash App and Venmo accounts linked to the Gmail address that used the name Alex Miller.
A separate emergency disclosure request for the Google Voice number turned up a forwarding number that was similarly tied to the Columbus address, according to the complaint.
If convicted, Miller faces up to five years in federal prison. It was not immediately clear when he was scheduled to appear in court.
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