New York man pleads guilty to threatening Senator Rafael Warnock

Supporter of the far right Proud boys A group from New York pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to making threats against the elected Senator. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

The man, 40-year-old Eduard Florea from Queens, admitted to posting online statements threatening to kill Warnock, where had just won the by-elections for the Senate in Georgia. “The dead man can not pass laws… I will fight, so help me my god,” he said in a message, according to prosecutors.

When the FBI searched Florea’s home in January, agents found more than a thousand firearms and shotguns. He also pleaded guilty to illegal possession of ammunition because he had previously been convicted of a felony.

After the attack on the Capitol began in January 6, according to court documents, Florea posted a series of messages calling for violence using the name “LoneWolfWar” on Parler, a social media platform popular with conservatives.

“We need to regroup outside DC and attack from all sides,” a statement from prosecutors said. “The guns were loaded clean … they took a bunch of kids all armed and ready to grow,” said another.

“With today’s guilty plea, Florea admits to threatening the life of a successful candidate for the US Senate and urges others to take up arms to launch violence on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to overturn the results of the presidential election,” she said. . Jacquelyn Kasulis, Acting U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn.

Government lawyers said Flora’s wife told the FBI she was “in a frenzy to take part in the attack” when she saw her unfold on television. He said he “dressed in a tactical vest, armed himself with battle knives, put on a bag with more knives and was ready to travel to Washington,” but that his planned walk did not take him.

Prosecutors described Florea as a “serial perpetrator of domestic violence against his wife”, who repeatedly showed her weapons and held her with a knife. They said that in the days after the siege of the Capitol, he attacked her for refusing to help him raise money for the Proud Boys.