In America, threatening a voter with death is both unacceptable and a felony. In 2024, Pennsylvanians with Trump signs in their yards received anonymous, chilling death threat letters, a crime the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Pennsylvania State Police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are doing nothing about.
"We know where you live," the menacing letters said. "You are in the database. In the dead of a cold winter's night, this year or next and beyond, there is no knowing what may happen. Your property, your family may be impacted, your cat may get shot. And more."
Why has no one been arrested, going on 15 months after these threats were made?
An orchestrated effort to threaten to kill Trump supporters unfortunately hasn't seemed to matter to our appointed and elected guardians of American values. But it does matter to Americans who value our precious civil society.
History proves that threats of political violence are too often followed by actual political violence. Unfortunately, the institutions responsible for protecting civil society from political threats of violence in Pennsylvania have failed.
Topping the list of failures is the Pennsylvania State Police, which admitted -- in writing no less -- that it never even opened an investigation.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), at an event moderated by NBC's Savannah Guthrie, said that "all leaders must condemn all political violence, not cherry-pick which violence to condemn and which violence to accept."
We agree. Perhaps Shapiro could tell the Pennsylvania State Police to stop cherry-picking which violence they will accept and get busy finding out who threatened his constituents.
Also, where is the FBI? The FBI zealously investigated, charged and arrested Douglass Mackey for tweeting in 2016 a joke that Hillary Clinton supporters could vote by text. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently held Mackey's prosecution to be invalid.
Perhaps the FBI, and particularly its Philadelphia field office, should focus on this real violation of federal civil rights laws. We assume FBI Director Kash Patel is unaware of its failure to do so.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation, an organization with which we are both affiliated, has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two Pennsylvania voters who received the death threats. The problem, of course, is that we don't know who sent them, so a federal court has allowed some discovery to try to identify of the perpetrators. The Foundation is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the perpetrators.
But we obviously don't have the resources to find the culprits that the FBI has.
Astonishingly, our courtroom efforts to expose the perpetrators are being vigorously opposed by both Justice Department lawyers and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
You read that right -- they are resisting efforts to prosecute criminals who threatened Trump voters.
We're not surprised; the Justice Department is massive and Attorney General Pam Bondi is probably unaware that David Metcalf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and long-term Department of Justice careerist lawyer who clerked for an Obama-appointed federal judge, has been fighting us in court to avoid revealing any information about this matter.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which received the physical letters in 2024, is also opposing court efforts to identify the perpetrators. Playing the role of Inspector Clouseau is Gary R. Barksdale, its head.
The deep state is very, very deep.
No one should get away with threatening to kill voters and their loved ones for displaying political yard signs.
Failing to investigate and prosecute these villains sends a dangerous message. It is time for both federal and state law enforcement to do their jobs, and most importantly to stop standing in the way of justice.
J. Christian Adams is a commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights and Hans von Spakovsky is a former commissioner on the Federal Elections Commission.