A Florida man has been arrested for allegedly threatening the life of Lauren Boebert, the far-right Republican congresswoman from Colorado.
Authorities arrested Matthew Lee Comiskey of Palm Beach county, Florida, on Friday and charged him with five felony counts of making interstate threats.
Starting on 31 August 2021, Comiskey allegedly made several Twitter posts threatening Boebert’s life, as was first reported by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
According to court documents that were unsealed on Friday, Comiskey posted about hurting the US House representative several times. In one tweet posted on 31 August 2021, Comiskey wrote: “If I ever see Lauren I’d be glad to take her out and go to prison. Would be job well done.”
In other posts, Comiskey encouraged others to harm Boebert, tweeting on 15 September 2021: “Someone needs to put Lauren down like a sick dog. She is a true waste of life! Someone exercise their second amendment right to her face! Since the [CIA] is a failure and [FBI] is incompetent at charging her for being a terrorist it’s time to do it ourselves! Pew pew Lauren.”
In a final post on 17 September 2021, Comiskey wrote: “[D]on’t come to Florida us libs have big guns here and we stand our ground. Take you down like Trayvon,” referring to the 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager, in Florida.
On Friday, a federal magistrate set Comiskey’s bond at $50,000. His arraignment is scheduled for 8 June.
If indicted, Comiskey could face a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
Boebert could not immediately be reached for comment.
