Trump Supporter Convicted For Threatening To Kill Members Of Congress After January 6

Following the Jan. 6 insurrection, there have been a number of arrests of those who participated in the riot. There have also been arrests of those who did not participate in the riots but were connected to it.

Brendan Hunt is believed to be one of the first people to go on trial for crimes related to the riots. He took to social media to share a racist rant and threatening to kill congress members. On Wednesday, April 28 he was found guilty by a jury.

Just two days after the insurrections at Capitol Hill, Hunt went online to go on a racist rant. Taking to a hosting site popular with far-right conservatives, BitChute, he posted the video titled ‘KILL YOUR SENATORS: Slaughter them all.’

During the racist rant, he called on Trump supporters to go to Washington on Inauguration Day. He urged them to kill the elected senators to replace them with “actual patriots”.

Even though he was not present during the Capitol Hill riot, he supported the riot and said that the rioters should go for “high-value targets” like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, CNN reported.

He was arrested on Jan. 19 after the FBI was tipped off about the BitChute video, Washington Post reported. Following his arrest, in January he has been held in police custody.

During his trial, Hunt, the son of a New York City family court judge, said that he had time to reflect on his actions. He claimed that he had been drinking a lot of beer and had smoked some marijuana when he made the video. He also claimed that being isolated in his Queens apartment played a role in his rant.

Having reflected on his actions he admitted that they were “immature”. However, he also defended his rant by saying that he did not mean what he said. He said that he was feeding off of the “kill Trump” stance that many people were taking.

When prosecutors presented the jury with problematic messages sent from Hunt to his father, he provided an explanation for that as well. In the messages, he wrote that if former president, Donald Trump, overrode the democratic process as Adolf Hitler had, the American people would be in support of it. Hunt told the court that he was simply trying to rile up his father.

The jury at Brooklyn federal court found Hunt guilty of one count of threatening to assault or murder US officials. In June he will return to court for sentencing. He could be sentenced to up to 10-years in prison.