Ohio man gets 2.5 years in prison for death threats made in 2022 to Arizona’s top election official

An Ohio man who acknowledged making death threats in voicemails left for then-Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs during the 2022 election season has been sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years in prison.

Joshua Russell of Bucyrus, Ohio, had pleaded guilty on Aug. 31, 2023, in Phoenix to a federal charge of making an interstate threat against Hobbs, a Democrat who, as secretary of state, was Arizona’s chief elections officer in 2022 and now serves as the state’s governor.

U.S. District Judge Steven Logan commended Russell for undergoing substance abuse treatment and other counseling since his arrest and getting his life in order but concluded Russell must spend time in prison, saying he has traumatized people who work in the secretary of state’s office.

The judge, who read Russell’s profanity-laden threats aloud in court, said Russell had accused the victim of being a terrorist, while he was threatening her life. He rejected Russell’s characterization of his actions as immature. “None of these people deserved it,” the judge said.

“I was looking for an outlet to cast my inner turmoil onto,” Russell told the judge before he was sentenced. He hugged his parents and sister in the courtroom before he was taken away to start serving his punishment.

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