A 57-year-old Florida resident is facing federal charges for allegedly threatening to assassinate various government officials who have sparred with Donald Trump, including New York State Attorney General Letitia James, former first son Hunter Biden and ex-FBI Director James Comey.
Gregory Formicone made the threats in the comments section of The Gateway Pundit, a far-right website that traffics largely in conspiracy theories and election denialism, according to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by The Independent.
Underneath an article about Comey that appeared on the site late last month, the affidavit says a comment by user @gregformicone read, “[I]f he skates and walks on the beach again, he’s going down! We already have a team on it. Time for the American people to administer justice!”
Comey, who played a role in investigating allegations of the Trump campaign accepting help from Russian operatives during his successful 2016 bid for the White House, has been targeted for prosecution by the president, who made no secret about using the office to exact revenge upon his political enemies.
Formicone was arrested Wednesday morning on one count of transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure, court records show. He was turned in by another Gateway Pundit reader living nearby, who claimed the Bradenton resident had also threatened them in comments on the site, according to the affidavit.
A call to Formicone’s mobile phone a few hours after his arrest went straight to voicemail. A public defender appointed to represent Formicone did not respond to a request for comment.
Seamus Hughes, a senior research faculty member at NCITE, the University of Nebraska Omaha's National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, told The Independent, “We've been looking at federal arrests from 2013 to now involving threats to public officials. 2025 is on pace to be yet another record year. There has been a meteoric rise in the number of cases, with the central tenant being terminally online, hyper-partisan defendants upset at whatever the most recent perceived outrage is.”
Hughes, who is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Court Watch, a news service that closely monitors the federal docket, added, “The threats are coming from across the political spectrum, speaking to an unnerving moment in American politics to be a public servant.”
On October 26, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received an online tip “regarding numerous threats against government and judicial officials” posted as comments “in relation to articles published by The Gateway Pundit,” the affidavit states.
The comments had been made by a user with the display name “Spaceman Chuck,” and the handle “@gregformicone,” the affidavit explains.
The first threat cited in the affidavit came on September 20, below a Gateway Pundit article titled, Trump-Hating Former CIA Chief John Brennan Rushes to Comey's Defense, Insists the Disgraced FBI Director Is 'Innocent' After Indictment.
“[John] Brennan and Comey are average citizens now,” Formicone allegedly commented underneath. “Their safety is not guaranteed.”
Brennan has been outspoken in questioning Trump’s mental acuity and has commented publicly on his being “unstable, inept, inexperienced, and unethical.”
Around the same time, another comment appeared beneath a Gateway Pundit article with the headline: Hunter Biden Petitions Courts to Have Businessman and Election Fraud Expert Patrick Byrne ARRESTED Over Defamation Lawsuit.
“Just so we’re clear, Hunter [Biden] is an absolute nobody anymore,” the comment read. “It’s open season on him and he should shut his arrogant mouth!”
This, the affidavit continues, is “a metaphor implying that it is now acceptable or intended to attack, harm, or target [Hunter Biden], similar to animals being hunted during open hunting season.” (Formicone holds a Florida state hunting license, according to public records.)
On October 18, the affidavit says Formicone commented on a Gateway Pundit article about Graham Platner, a Democrat from Maine running for U.S. Senate, writing, “He is a disgrace to our military and a human piece of garbage. A large caliber hollow point to the head is what he needs.” (Platner, a military veteran, has recently come under fire for a chest tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol.)
The affidavit explains that a hollow-point bullet is “designed to maximize the wound it inflicts by expanding upon impact, causing catastrophic injury to the victim.”
On October 19, Formicone commented on a Gateway Pundit article about Connecticut State Senator Saud Anwar, also a Democrat, allegedly writing, “Time for an American citizen to remove this piece of garbage permanently!”
A day later, Formicone threatened to murder Comey, commenting beneath a Gateway Pundit headline attributing a recent court win for the onetime FBI director to a “Biden judge.”
A fourth comment, posted on October 24, was a response to a Gateway Pundit headline about another so-called Biden judge who handed down a ruling that favored New York State AG Letitia James, who has also been in Trump’s crosshairs ever since her office successfully sued the Trump Organization in 2022 for business fraud.
In an investigation reportedly requested by Trump upon retaking office, a federal probe was opened into alleged mortgage fraud by James. Critics have blasted the charges as political retribution.
“If they let both of them off the hook, every fn [sic] person involved in the fix will definitely be pushing daisies,” the comment read. “We have had enough and the communist activist judges will be exterminated! Civil war will very soon ensue and all of these judges will be the first to go. 78,000 armed to the teeth patriots are ready to take this country back at the call sign. Don’t believe me, sit back and watch!”
On October 31, FBI agents interviewed the source who notified the bureau about Formicone and the Gateway Pundit threats, according to the affidavit. The tipster, identified in the affidavit only as “Witness 1,” said they regularly go to “‘right wing’ political chat groups and sites to see what they are talking about.”
Witness 1, a Texas resident, said they first spotted the troubling comments during the last week of October, and “found them to be particularly egregious,” as well as “a credible threat,” the affidavit states.
It says Witness 1 told agents it appeared that Formicone had threatened someone in his own area, posting, “Man you are a stupid Moron [sic]. I live right up the road from you in Venice. i [sic] now have you [sic] picture and all of your family’s information. Best part is, is [sic] that you won’t even see it coming. Man you’re dumb. Haha[.]”
Additional comments, which Witness 1 had screenshotted for the feds, allegedly said, among other things, that it was “past time to start whacking” judges, that “[i]t’s so easy to remove people from life… Let’s get on it,” and called for a federal judge to be killed by a “sniper team.”
On October 29, three days after the FBI began investigating Formicone, his display name had been changed to “gregformicone,” and “many of the previously posted comments were no longer visible,” indicating they had either been removed by moderators or that Formicone had deleted them, the affidavit says.
The affidavit says that in order not to not infringe on the First Amendment, someone can only be charged with making threats if the threat is a “true threat,” not “idle talk, a careless remark, or something said jokingly—that is, made under circumstance that would place a reasonable person in fear of being injured or in fear of another person being injured.”
The comments made on The Gateway Pundit site qualified as true threats, the affidavit contends.
If convicted, Formicone faces up to five years in prison.
