A 58-year-old Rego Park man has pleaded guilty to sending threatening emails to an employee of the Council on American Islamic Relations, the FBI announced on Tuesday.
According to court documents and the guilty plea he entered in New York’s Eastern District federal court on Monday, Bernhard Laufer admitted to threatening the employee with significant bodily harm and death. The communications were sent in June 2014 from New York to the employee who worked for the civil rights and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
“Those who make violent threats to others because of race, religion or national origin must be held accountable,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting those who engage in such conduct.”
Laufer faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
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