A Michigan man allegedly threatened, on Twitter, to kill Jewish members of the Michigan State Government in February, according to the FBI. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel claimed on Thursday that she was one of the individuals targeted.
The FBI National Threat Operations Center alerted the Detroit FBI office to the threat on Feb. 18. According to the FBI’s affidavit in support of the individual’s arrest, a Twitter user with the account handle @tempered_reason posted a tweet on Feb. 17 claiming he was on his way to the state of Michigan with the intent to harm those in the Michigan government who identify as Jewish.
The individual was later identified by the FBI as a former University of Michigan employee named Jack Eugene Carpenter III. In an email to The Michigan Daily, University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen wrote that Carpenter was employed by the University for 10 years, working as a systems administrator intermediate in LSA. Carpenter’s employment ended in 2021.
In a tweet Thursday, Nessel said she was one of the individuals Carpenter was targeting.
According to the affidavit, the FBI worked with Jewish political and community leaders to notify potential targets in the Michigan government after the tweet was posted. Carpenter was arrested and charged with committing an interstate threat as he was found to have been in Texas at the time he sent the tweets. Carpenter is currently being held without bail in a federal court in Detroit where he awaits trial. If found guilty l, Carpenter could receive up to five years in federal prison.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Hank Moon, government officials found six firearms and ammunition in Carpenter’s vehicle when he was arrested.
The threat to Michigan officials echoes an increase in anti-semitic attacks across the country. The Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate organization that focuses on fighting antisemitism in all forms, found that antisemitic attacks reached a record high in the U.S. in 2021. There have been many similar attacks against Jewish people in the past few months.
Daily News Editor Riley Hodder can be reached at rehodder@umich.edu.