LAS VEGAS – A Las Vegas man is accused of threatening to injure and kill government officials in three states and the District of Columbia, including a New York judge. accuser who handled the affairs of former President Donald Trump criminal hush money courtaccording to federal officials and court documents.
Spencer Gear, 32, was being held in a federal prison in Nevada on Friday after his arrest and pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 22 felony charges of threatening a federal officer and communicating a communication with the risk of injury. Gear’s indictment was unsealed on July 16.
Rebecca Levy, a federal public defender representing Gear in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, did not return messages seeking comment Friday.
The indictment lists 11 victims by initials, including a phone call from Nevada to New York that “threatened to kill AB and JM,” according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Judge Juan M. Merchan.
Bragg’s office declined to comment. A message was left for a spokesman for the New York state court system.
In ordering Gear into federal custody before trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler cited “the number of calls in this case” that also involved victims in New Jersey and Montana.
The judge pointed to a recording of a June 3 phone message “addressed to the judge and district attorney” and called the language Gear used “very troubling to the court.”
That date was the Monday after a jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. paying hush money to a porn actor who said the two had sex. Trump also has lawyers has since asked Merchan to overturn the verdict, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling on immunity. The judge said he would rule in September.
Weksler noted that Gear has little prior criminal history, noting two driving violations, but was charged by federal authorities last week with resisting arrest.
“The accused has no respect for the judicial system and judges,” the magistrate judge said. The trial is set for September 24.
Bragg’s office, which is prosecuting Trump’s hush money crime case, has reported at least 56 “actionable threats” and nearly 500 threatening emails and phone calls directed at Bragg, his family and staff since April.
These include threats to bomb the homes of two people involved in the case on April 15, the first day of Trump’s trial; a photo showing sniper sights aimed at people involved in the case, according to police; and threatening messages such as “we will kill you all” and “your life is over”.
In 2023, police recorded 89 threats against Bragg, his family or staff, up from one in 2022, his first year in office.
This year’s wave of threats began on March 18, the day Trump falsely tweeted that he was about to be arrested and encouraged supporters to protest and “take back our nation,” according to a statement from Bragg’s police chief.
A few days later, Bragg’s office received a small amount of white powder and a letter with the note “Alvin: I’m going to kill you.”
Court officials said that Mercha also received dozens of death threats.
After Trump’s April 2023 trial, a state court spokeswoman said Merchan’s chambers “received predictable harassing and defamatory calls and emails.”
In April, the 26-year-old New Yorker was charged with sending text messages threatening “death and physical harm” to New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Trump’s civil fraud judge Arthur Engoro. Stop working on Trump.”
In August 2023, FBI agents a gunman killed a Utah resident Bragg was suspected of making threats against Garland, James and President Joe Biden. Family members of Craig Deleuze Robertson, who was killed by agents while trying to serve a warrant at his home in Provo, Utah, described him as a gun enthusiast who worried about “corrupt and overreaching government.”