Federal prosecutors in North Carolina have filed charges against a man masked by an anonymous Twitter profile who threatened a candidate for Virginia state Senate with lynching.
According to the Daily Beast, the FBI discovered that Joseph Cecil Vandevere was behind the tweet threatening Qasim Rashid, the first Muslim to win a Virginia state primary.
The tweet included a photo from a 1915 lynching with the text: “Let’s meet so you can run that coward mouth to my face. Please. View your destiny,” and other racist bile.
Rashid flagged the tweet at the time.
Hey @twitter this white supremacist @DaDUTCHMAN5 is threatening me with lynching b/c I am a Muslim.
Please tell me this violates your terms & conditions?#WhereWasHeRadicalized? pic.twitter.com/YyLNiT5gUD
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) March 14, 2018
He will face off against Republican Richard Stuart for the seat in Virginia’s 28th District this November.