The Kenai man who threatened a sitting U.S. Senator believed to be Lisa Murkowski, pleaded guilty to making interstate threats to kidnap and injure on Wednesday, June 26th.
Arther Graham, 46, originally sent a web form submission to a U.S. Senator on Sept. 28, 2023, threatening severe bodily injury and kidnapping. Congressional staff members reported the threat to the U.S. Capitol Police, and an investigation was launched.
Graham identified himself in the threat. Law enforcement later confirmed the sender was Graham and lived in Kenai. He was taken into custody by special agents from the U.S. Capitol Police and FBI at his home on Oct. 30, 2023.
An affidavit submitted to a federal judge on Oct. 27 by Austin Hunter, a special agent with the U.S. Capitol Police, states there was probable cause to believe Graham had willfully transmitted “interstate and foreign commerce communications containing a threat to kidnap and injure United States Senator 1.”
Throughout Special Agent Hunter’s affidavit, the threatened senator remains unnamed. However, based on references to this senator as “she” and “her,” it has been widely speculated that “United States Senator 1” is Lisa Murkowski, given that she is Alaska’s only female senator.
Graham’s threats against the senator were not his first foray into threats of kidnapping, harm, or death via the internet. In a series of emails sent from 2019 to 2020, he made repeated (graphic) death threats against prominent, New York-based investigative journalist Frank Parlato, as well as several women mentioned in some of Parlato’s articles.
Parlato documented the messages he received from Graham in several articles published on his website, the “Frank Report.” According to one such article, Parlato states, “In an email sent to me yesterday, a man named Arthur C. Graham has threatened the life of Allison Mack, Kristin Kreuk, Nicki Clyne, and myself.”
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
In the articles, Parlato posted Graham’s emails, which have a similar tone and contain similarly graphic content to his Sept. 28 email.
“Threats of violence against public servants are abhorrent and unacceptable, and as this plea makes clear, the Justice Department will not tolerate them,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Our democracy depends on the ability of members of Congress to do their jobs without fearing for their safety. The Justice Department will continue to do everything in our power to protect those who serve the public and hold accountable those who endanger them.”
U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker of the District of Alaska and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the U.S. Capitol Police made the announcement.
The U.S. Capitol Police and FBI Anchorage Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from the Kenai Police Department and Alaska State Troopers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Vandergaw is prosecuting the case.
