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Federal agents arrested Alex Justin Miller, 26, of Columbus, Ohio, within 36 hours of a graphic email that threatened to behead a member of Congress and called for the death of President Donald Trump. The Justice Department charged Miller with interstate transmission of a threat to injure, and he is being held without bond at the Franklin County Jail in Columbus.
Representative Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, identified himself as the target. Fine, who is Jewish, said he received the threat on August 18, the morning of Florida's primary election, and that the sender was arrested a day and a half later. "If they think this will make me afraid, they are wrong," Fine wrote on X. "There is no place in our political system for this." Fine won Florida's 6th District seat in an April 2025 special election, after the previous congressman, Michael Waltz, became President Trump's national security adviser.
According to the Justice Department, the email carried the subject line "Can't wait to snipe your head off your shoulders" and contained vulgar and antisemitic language. The message threatened to burn down Fine's home and kill his family, and ended with a call for the deaths of both the congressman and the president. Investigators have not described a motive beyond the content of the message.
The FBI, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office in Florida, the US Secret Service and the US Capitol Police worked the case together and traced the sender to Columbus. Federal law bars threats to kill or harm the president, members of Congress and other officials, and prosecutors must show that a statement was a true threat rather than protected speech. Law enforcement agencies have warned that online statements can bring criminal charges when they carry specific, credible threats of harm. If convicted, Miller faces up to five years in federal prison.
The arrest adds to a run of federal cases this month involving threats and plots against government targets. On August 20, the Justice Department charged a woman in Albany, New York, over an ISIS-inspired plan to attack the New York State Capitol.
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