In task force's first case, Leander man Chad Stark charged with making Georgia election threats

An FBI-led operation on Friday arrested a Leander man whom investigators have accused of making election-related threats against government officials a year ago.

The investigation into Chad Stark, 54, is the first criminal case brought by a new U.S. Justice Department task force that was created last year to address threats of violence against election workers. A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Stark on a charge of making an interstate threatening communication. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

Stark on Jan. 5, 2021 — the day before the U.S. Capitol insurrection — posted a rambling message on Craigslist, calling on "Georgia patriots" to kill three different officials, arrest documents allege.

"It’s our duty as American patriots to put an end to the lives of these traitors and take back our country by force," the post reads. "We can no longer wait on the corrupt law enforcement in the corrupt courts."

Court records do not name the officials. The FBI’s Atlanta office is heading the investigation, and a U.S. attorney’s office in Georgia is prosecuting the case.

Around the same time that Stark is alleged to have posted on Craigslist, former President Donald Trump had been making a myriad of unfounded allegations against Georgia officials, falsely accusing them of rigging the election against him. Georgia election officials publicly fact-checked many false claims of massive election fraud, and the vote tally was confirmed by two statewide recounts.

More than 60 Texans face Capitol riot charges. Less than 1 in 6 have been found guilty.

The Justice Department established an election threats task force in June, and so far it has reviewed more than 850 reports of threats to election officials.

"During the 2020 election cycle and the events that followed, these unsung heroes came under unprecedented verbal assault for doing nothing more than their jobs," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. said Friday. "As the attorney general and deputy attorney general have both emphasized previously, we will not tolerate the intimidation of those who safeguard our electoral system."

Chad Christopher Stark appears in Texas court

Stark, wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and baggy jeans, appeared at a federal court hearing Friday in Austin before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Hightower, who told him that he qualified financially to have an appointed attorney.

Stark, who said he would like to have an attorney appointed, told the judge he was a high school graduate, had gone to trade school and had a job. Stark also told Hightower that he didn't own any guns and didn't have any mental health conditions.

Stark declined to comment after the hearing.

Hightower released Stark from jail and set several conditions while he's out. He must stay within Travis, Hays and Williamson counties, with the exception of his next court hearing Feb. 4 in Atlanta, where he will be arraigned.

Stark has a criminal record, documents show. In 2011, he was convicted of injuring a child and served three years on probation.

An April poll of election officials around the country found that a third of them felt unsafe because of their jobs, and 17% reported that they had received actual threats because of their work.

In Travis County, election workers are receiving deescalation training to help them deal with anyone unruly at the polls.

“We had a few (voters) who refused to wear masks, and they showed up in the polling place, you know, itching for a fight, loaded for bear,” Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir told the American-Statesman. “It wasn’t everywhere, and there weren’t that many, but when it did happen, the (election workers) were scared.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Chad Stark, of Leander, Texas, charged with making election threats