‘Hope You Get a Bullet’: Man Charged With Sending Death Threats to Fauci

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A 56-year-old man was charged Tuesday with sending threatening emails to top public health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci, at one point writing to Fauci that he and his “entire family will be dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire.”

Thomas J. Connally Jr., a technical writer, was indicted in federal court in Maryland for making threats against a federal official and interstate communication containing a threat to harm, for sending several threatening emails to Fauci and National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins, using a Protonmail account between December 2020 and last week. 

“Hope someone takes a baseball bat to your dirty lying elf skull and puts your [sic] out of your misery, you sickening vile piece of criminal DOG SHIT,” Connally allegedly wrote in a December 2020 email to Fauci, according to screenshots provided in the court filing. 

“You and your disgusting wife and daughters are getting 6 mandatory shots to their disgusting pig snouts while you watch,” said an email sent in April, one of six sent to Fauci over the course of three minutes on a Saturday night. “You and your entire family will be dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire.”

The emails repeatedly used anti-gay slurs. “Drop the 'mandatory vaccine' talk, or you're getting 6 mandatory shots to your worhtless [sic] satanist f***** skull,” Connally allegedly wrote in another email sent to Collins on the same night, one of four. “I'll smash every tooth out of your f***** skull.” In another email to Collins that night, he referred to Collins by an antisemitic slur. 

Though he used an encrypted email service, investigators tracked the emails to Connally using an IP address and a separate email, which he allegedly used for job listings and to keep track of passwords including to the ProtonMail account. 

“I will smash every bone in your worthless, venal, criminal elf skull,” Connally wrote in the most recent email to Fauci, sent July 21. “I will slaughter your entire family. You will pay with your childrens’ blood for your crimes, you sickening fucking piece of shit.”

Connally faces up to 15 years in prison if he’s convicted. 

“We will never tolerate violent threats against public officials,” Acting Maryland U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lenzner said in a statement. “Our public health officials deserve our thanks and appreciation for their tireless work, and we will not hesitate to bring charges against those individuals who seek to use fear to silence these public servants.”