Second Person Arrested By DOJ Election Unit Made Repeated, Violent Calls To Nevada SoS Office

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 22: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during an event at the Department of Justice on October 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. Garland gave remarks on the department's plans to address ... WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 22: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during an event at the Department of Justice on October 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. Garland gave remarks on the department's plans to address issues of redlining and lending discrimination. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force has charged a second person in its investigations into violent threats against election workers.

The DOJ announced on Thursday that a 50-year-old Nevada man named Gjergi Luke Juncaj was arrested in Las Vegas on Wednesday and charged with four counts of making a threatening phone call.

Prosecutors alleged that Juncaj called the Nevada Secretary of State’s office four times and threatened the worker, who is identified as “S.M.” in the indictment, on Jan. 7 last year – a day after the Capitol insurrection and Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

In the first call, Juncaj allegedly told the worker, “I want to thank you for such a great job you all did on stealing the election. I hope you all go to jail for treason. I hope your children get molested. You are all going to fucking die.”

About 12 minutes after S.M. hung up on him, Juncaj allegedly called the office again and, upon being transferred to S.M.’s desk, repeated that “[y]ou are all going to die,” according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said S.M. phoned the police to report the call before Juncaj allegedly called the office two more times to tell the worker in what the prosecutors describe as “a raised voice” that she and the other staff at the office were going to die.

All four alleged calls took place in less than a half hour, according to the prosecutors.

Law enforcement traced the cell phone number the alleged threats came from back to Juncaj, who did not identify himself during the calls, per the indictment.

Juncaj’s arrest came less than a week after the election worker task force, which Attorney General Merrick Garland assembled seven months ago, made its first arrest: A Texas man had allegedly posted an ad on Craigslist offering $10,000 to have three Georgia officials killed.

Nevada and Georgia, both of which went to Biden in the election, were targeted by ex-President Donald Trump in his attempt to overturn the election results. Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who is a Republican, was censured by the state’s GOP last year for not playing along with Trump’s lies about mass voter fraud.

Read the indictment in Juncaj’s case below:

Correction: A typo in a previous version of this article incorrectly characterized why Cegavske was censured by the state GOP. TPM regrets this error.

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