A former congressional candidate in Florida has been charged after allegedly threatening to send \u201cthe Russian mafia\u201d after his opponent.<\/p>\n
William Robert Braddock III, 41, was charged Thursday in federal court with threatening now-Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R). Braddock and Luna were rivals during the 2021 Republican primary election for Florida\u2019s 13th Congressional District, which includes the Tampa area.<\/p>\n
In a June 2021 phone call, Braddock told an acquaintance of Luna\u2019s, Erin Olszewski, that if he were not ahead in a soon-to-be-released poll, he would have to \u201csacrifice\u201d his opponent, according to the charging documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be the next congressman for this district. Period, end of discussion,\u201d Braddock said, according to the documents. \u201cI really don\u2019t want to have to anybody\u2019s life \u2014 end anybody\u2019s life for the good of the people of the United States of America \u2026 \u2019cause it\u2019ll break my heart. But, if it needs to be done, it needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olszewski secretly recorded the conversation in which Braddock threatened to hire \u201ca Russian-Ukrainian hit squad\u201d to kill Luna, advising Olszewski to stay away from Luna, court documents say.<\/p>\n
Braddock also warned Olszewski not to be on the \u201cwrong side of supporting [Luna], because if you\u2019re near her when time comes, I just don\u2019t want that to happen to you.\u201d Braddock said according to the charging documents. \u201cYou\u2019ve got kids \u2026 so don\u2019t be associated with [Luna] under any circumstances, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braddock\u2019s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Luna and Olszewski sought protective orders against Braddock that year, accusing him of stalking them, according to Pinellas County court records. Braddock denied the stalking allegations.<\/p>\n
Luna and Olszewski testified in September 2021 that they feared for their lives, according to Florida Politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis man has put me through emotional hell,\u201d Luna testified. \u201cI think that he\u2019s evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braddock refused to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment rights. He was not charged with stalking.<\/p>\n
Braddock withdrew from the primary election, which Luna won before securing the seat in the 2022 midterms, and moved to the Philippines, according to a Justice Department news release. He was deported to the United States and appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday to face one count of interstate transmission of a true threat to injure another person.<\/p>\n
The charges were filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n
Melvin Soto, a spokesperson for Luna, declined to comment on the indictment, but he highlighted how Luna is one of many women who received death threats while running for and serving in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cFemale members of Congress are disproportionately targeted for stalking, violence, and harassment compared to their male counterparts,\u201d Soto said. \u201cThis alarming trend points to a broader and more disturbing issue of violence in the political arena.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A former congressional candidate in Florida has been charged after allegedly threatening to send \u201cthe Russian mafia\u201d after his opponent. William Robert Braddock III, 41, was charged Thursday in federal court with threatening now-Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R). Braddock and Luna were rivals during the 2021 Republican primary election for Florida\u2019s 13th Congressional District, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}