Left: Bradley Nelson, Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol (Justice Department). Right: Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images).
A Nevada man awaiting trial for criminal charges tied to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, has been arrested once more following violent threats he made targeting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
A bond revocation hearing for Bradley Nelson will be held on Aug. 14 in Washington, D.C., before U.S. District Judge John Bates, according to a minute entry on the docket reviewed Wednesday by Law&Crime.
Court records show following Nelson’s March 2023 arrest, he was released with conditions including no drugs, guns, or any travel to Washington, D.C., but did not specify restrictions for his social media use. Now prosecutors say they have found a litany of disturbing and threatening social media posts from Nelson concerning a variety of public officials and that he should be put back in jail since he poses a danger to the public.
In August 2023, prosecutors allege Nelson posted an image online of a Georgia state judge handling the Donald Trump election interference case with “apparent crosshairs drawn on his head.”
The judge handling the currently waylaid racketeering case in Georgia alleging Trump and several others engaged in a “fake electors” scheme is Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is not named in the detention order for Nelson.
In February 2024, prosecutors allege Nelson posted an image of New York Attorney General Letitia James — who handled Trump’s civil fraud prosecution — with crosshairs on her head too. This time, the photo was accompanied by threatening commentary from Nelson allegedly including: “give every [expletive] thing I have to watch that [expletive]’s head explode, or at least the back of her head blowout.”
And then, in June, mere hours after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Fischer v. United States agreeing to narrow the application of an obstruction statute used to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters, Nelson allegedly set eyes on Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Barrett, appointed by former President Donald Trump, broke with her conservative colleagues in a sharply written dissenting opinion in Fischer v. United States.
She wrote, as Law&Crime reported, that it was clear the certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021, by Congress was an “official proceeding” under the meaning of the obstruction statute at challenge. Attempts by the high court’s majority to narrow the statute by suggesting that it only applied to the obstruction of official documents or records struck Barrett as nonsensical. She called out the majority for engaging in “textual backflips” to reach its conclusion.
“I pray to God with all my [expletive] heart that somebody cuts your [expletive] throat from ear to ear you worthless piece of [expletive],” Nelson allegedly wrote hours after that dissent was published.
That post also included an image of the justice.
The alleged threat against Attorney General Garland came in July. Nelson posted a photo of Garland with crosshairs on his head too, according to prosecutors.
There were videos from June 28 that he posted online less than 10 minutes apart as well, according to prosecutors, and in each, he lashed out at the FBI, even offering in one clip to “get into ‘the MMA ring with you two pieces of [expletive].”
MMA is an abbreviation for mixed martial arts.
“[The offer] still stands [expletive]. Any day. [Expletive] you. Cause I’m not going to prison now [expletive]. Now what are you going to do. [Expletive] off,” he allegedly wrote.
In one of those alleged threats, he also referred to the “FBI [expletive] math teacher.”
“The government proffers that the lead case agent in this investigation was a math teacher before joining the FBI,” an Aug. 6 opinion and order to detain Nelson notes.
Nelson referred to a second FBI agent who interviewed him following his initial March 2023 arrest as well. Notably, Nelson referred to that agent as a “Stabler-looking person,” referring to a character on the television show “Law&Order: SVU” known as Elliot Stabler.
Nelson was described by agents as being so aggressive with them following his first March 2023 interview that a U.S. Marshal had to escort one of the FBI agents to their car due to safety concerns.
Nelson was ordered into detention on Tuesday and will be held until his bond revocation hearing next week. It seems unlikely he would be granted release in the wake of increasing threats against public officials like Vice President Kamala Harris and a recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Law&Crime reported on Monday that a man who threatened to “personally pluck out” the vice president’s eyes was arrested in Virginia.
Nelson was set to go to trial on Sept. 18 until prosecutors had requested proceedings be continued for at least 45 days so the case and pretrial discovery could be tweaked in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fischer. Now a pretrial conference is set for Nov. 21 with a trial date of Dec. 10.
He has pleaded not guilty to the Jan. 6 charges which include: 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(1)- Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds; 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(2)- Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds; 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(D)- Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building; and 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(G)- Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building.
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