A North Dakota man has been charged with threatening a federal official in an email that refers to the assassination of a prominent Minnesota state lawmaker and the attempted murder of another lawmaker, court records show.
A criminal complaint filed June 17 in federal court alleges that Charles Dalzell, of St. Thomas in northeastern North Dakota, emailed violent threats on the evening of June 15 to a person identified in the filing as "J.P." of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of North Dakota. The complaint did not identify "J.P." by name.
The email, which identified Dalzell as the sender, referred to the shootings of two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses in Minnesota on June 14. Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed while state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot multiple times and wounded inside their homes.
"Now I'm going to be honest with you, I don't want this situation to end up like Minnesota over the weekend, do you," Dalzell wrote in the email, according to the complaint. "I’m trying to get all of you to actually follow the law, not ignore me, not lie to me, not mislead me and purposely waist (sic) my time I don’t have."
