Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday the FBI told her she was among the many group of Jewish state elected officials targeted for murder by a “heavily armed defendant” who has been arrested.
Nessel tweeted that news together with an article detailing the recent arrest of the person, identified as former University of Michigan worker Jack Eugene Carpenter III, who’s charged with making threats via interstate communications.
“Probable cause exists that [Carpenter] made threats to cause injury and death to Jewish members of the Michigan government,” an FBI agent wrote in a grievance against Carpenter.
In her tweet, Nessel wrote: “The FBI has confirmed I used to be a goal of the heavily armed defendant on this matter.”
“It’s my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes & Domestic Terrorism Unit takes plots to murder elected officials,” Nessel added.
The news comes two months after a Delaware man was sentenced to greater than 19 years in prison for a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer before the 2020 presidential election.
That man, Barry Croft Jr., was the last of 4 defendants to be sentenced in reference to the conspiracy against Whitmer. The scheme was motivated by anger about Covid-19 pandemic restrictions imposed in Michigan.
In its criminal grievance against Carpenter, the FBI said the Tipton, Michigan, resident was in Texas when he made the threats on Twitter that led to his arrest.
“I’m heading back to Michigan now threatening to perform the punishment of death to anyone that’s jewish within the Michigan govt in the event that they don’t leave, or confess,” Carpenter tweeted on Feb. 17, in keeping with an affidavit by an FBI agent that supported the criminal grievance.
The affidavit said Carpenter followed up with one other tweet a day later.
“It’s possible you’ll need to let everyone know, and Wayne County sheriff as well, any try to subdue me will probably be met with deadly force in self-defense,” he wrote, in keeping with the document.
After being notified of Carpenter’s tweet, the Detroit FBI office checked databases and located that he had a “valid but unserved Personal Protection Order against him” that was signed Feb. 9, in keeping with the court filing.
The check also found that Carpenter had been arrested by Michigan State Police in December for assault, and that he was the registered owner of three 9mm handguns, the agent wrote.
Carpenter’s mother later told authorities he had also owned a 12-gauge shotgun and two hunting rifles, one among which was a military-style weapon, in keeping with the affidavit.
The agent wrote that a State Police trooper told the agent on Feb. 18 that he was “currently investigating” Carpenter for the theft of a Smith & Wesson handgun from his girlfriend.
The trooper said that on that very same morning, he received a call from Carpenter’s mother, who reported that her son was “currently in Texas, but requested money from her to make a visit back to Michigan.”
“She refused him and he became indignant, saying he would sell some silver to get money, but he was returning to Michigan in the following few days,” the agent wrote within the affidavit.
Carpenter in a Feb. 18 tweet wrote, “I used to be fired from the university of Michigan after going through all of the appeal processes for refusing to take experimental medication” related to Covid.
A University of Michigan spokesperson told CNBCÂ that Carpenter worked there from mid-2011 to December 2021.
“His position when his employment ended was as a systems administrator intermediate within the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts,” the spokesperson said. “It’s U-M policy to not share additional information on personnel matters.”
Carpenter was ordered temporarily detained without bail at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Michigan on Wednesday.
He’s on account of appear in court Friday for a detention hearing.
