Colorado man faces charges over threats to elections officials posted on social media

(CN) — A Colorado man charged with threatening elections officials on social media appeared in federal court in Durango, Colorado, on Monday.

Teak Brockbank, 45, was arrested on Friday on a single charge of making threats in interstate commerce. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

“Among other threats, he allegedly claimed that it was ‘time’ to put two state election officials to death and that he was obligated to ‘put a bullet’ in the head of a Colorado state judge,” deputy assistant attorney general Nicole Argentieri said in a statement. “Public servants must be able to do their jobs without fear."

Investigators linked Brockbank to a handful of posts dating back to September 2021 threatening election officials in Colorado and Arizona; he posted on social media sites Rumble and Gab under the moniker Teakty4u and a Pepe the Frog icon. The court redacted the names of the victims in the arrest affidavit.

On Oct. 4, 2021, investigators say Brockbank threatened a Montezuma County judge, saying, “I could pick up my rifle and I could go put a bullet in this man’s head and send him to explain himself to our creator right now.”

On Aug. 4, 2022, investigators say Brockbank posted further about executing public officials.

“Once these people start getting put to death then the rest will melt like snowflakes and turn on each other and we will just sit back,” Brockbank wrote as Teakty4u, according to the affidavit.

Since he was previously convicted of theft in Utah in 2002, Brockbank has been prohibited from possessing firearms. Investigators nevertheless say they found a video of Brockbank firing a gun at a range on his Apple iCloud account along with numerous images taken of firearms over the years.

In August 2023, Brockbank was prevented from purchasing a firearm, which he appealed, informing investigators that he “was informed on or about September 2023 by the state of Colorado that he was not legally authorized to purchase a firearm.”

In text messages, investigators claim Brockbank expressed “continued interest in violence toward public officials as well as his ongoing and recent illegal possession of firearms,” according to the arrest affidavit.

After the Colorado Supreme Court ordered former President Donald Trump be removed from the ballot in response to a civil lawsuit, Brockbank texted his stepfather saying the judges’ names “have been moved to the front of my list.”

U.S. attorneys Jonathan Jacobson and Cyrus Chung are leading the prosecution.

Argentieri vowed to continue prosecuting cases against individuals accused of threatening violence against public officials as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Election Threats Task Force.

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