A New York City man was convicted Wednesday for threatening to kill members of Congress in a video posted online two days after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors said.
Brendan Hunt was found guilty on a federal charge by a jury after a one-week trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said.
The 37-year-old had told jurors that he was often intoxicated by beer and pot when he posted and "wrote a lot of things I didn’t mean." He called himself “immature” and “very irresponsible" and said he felt "terrible about how I expressed myself," according to The Associated Press.
Hunt, who was arrested in mid-January, was accused of posting on Facebook in December that he wanted then-President Donald Trump to “hold a public execution of Pelosi aoc schumer etc," — apparently referring to Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Chuck Schumer.
The jury did not find that constituted a true threat to murder, according to court documents.
But it did convict him for a Jan. 8 video posted to Bitchute — a lightly moderated video uploading site preferred by right-wing extremists — titled "Kill your senators."
In that video, posted two days after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, Hunt called on people to return to the Capitol with guns and said that people should be killed, according to the documents.
He also said in the video that people should "take up arms" and attend the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden and that if someone gave him a gun he would go and kill, according to the indictment.
E-mailed messages to attorneys listed as representing Hunt seeking comment were not immediately returned early Thursday.
Hunt had been an assistant court analyst for the New York State Office of Court Administration since 2016. Court papers describe him as a part-time actor and filmmaker. Online, he used the alias "X-Ray Ultra,” officials said.
“With today’s verdict, the defendant is now a convicted felon, not for his repugnant, racist rants, but because he threatened to attack and kill members of Congress to prevent them from carrying out their constitutional duties, and that is a federal crime,” Mark J. Lesko, acting U.S. attorney for the district, said in a statement.
Prosecutors say Hunt faces a maximum sentence of 10 years. Sentencing is scheduled for June 22.
