NEW YORK — Authorities have arrested a Staten Island man on suspicion of “threatening to kill and ordering others to kill protestors, politicians and law enforcement in retaliation for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election,” according to the Justice Department.
Brian Maiorana, 54, was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly made threats on an unidentified social media platform. In a statement, FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said Maiorana “called for violence against our entire community—protestors, politicians, and law enforcement officers alike.”
The 54-year-old began to make threats online in at least September, according to the Justice Department.
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In October, Maiorana wrote that “pipe bombs need to be thrown into these mobs of potentially non violent violent protesters,” according to court records. On Thursday, court records show he posted a call for “carnage … in the form of extermination of anyone that claims to be democrat…as well as their family members.” After the race for the White House was called for Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden, Maiorana claimed that the race had been “fraudulently stolen from us” and suggested violence as a result, authorities said.
“The Turner Diaries must come to life,” Maiorana wrote Sunday, referring to a 1978 novel depicting a violent coup and race war, authorities said. “We blow up the FBI building for real.”
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Officials said Maiorana is a registered sex offender following a 2007 conviction for statutory sexual assault in Pennsylvania and, as such, he is barred from having firearms. However, during a search of his home, investigators said they found a semiautomatic firearm and ammunition, among other things.
Moiarana’s arrest comes as President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede the 2020 presidential race, claiming widespread voter fraud in several states. Election officials nationwide have said they have seen no evidence of such fraud, and multiple lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by election officials have been dismissed in recent days.
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Biden beat out Trump to become the nation’s 46th president, with 290 electoral votes to Trump’s 217, according to a count from The Associated Press. It takes 270 electoral votes to secure the race for the White House.
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