By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Nebraska man pleaded guilty on Thursday to making threats against an election official, marking the third federal case brought by a U.S. Justice Department task force formed last year to address the rising tide of such threats.
The Justice Department said that Travis Ford, 42, of Lincoln, wrote threatening posts on Instagram in August 2021 to an unnamed election official, asking: "Do you feel safe? You shouldn't... Your security detail is far too thin and incompetent to protect you."
Threats against election workers and volunteers drastically increased before and after the November 2020 presidential election, spurred by former Republican President Donald Trump's repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him, which he continues to do without any evidence.
Reuters published a series of investigative reports that documented more than 850 threats and menacing messages to U.S. election workers.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland launched the task force on election threats in June of 2021. Since then, it has filed charges against defendants in Texas, Nevada and Thursday's case in Nebraska.
It also has conducted over 20 trainings and outreach events on election threats to state, local, and federal law enforcement, state and local election officials, and social media companies throughout the United States.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate illegal threats of violence against public officials,” Garland said in a statement on Thursday.
Ford is slated to be sentenced on Oct. 6, and faces up to two years in prison.