FBI investigating threatening emails sent to Democrats in Florida, including in Citrus County

Описание: Democratic voters in Florida reported receiving threatening emails Tuesday purportedly from the violent, far-right group Proud Boys directing them to vote for President Donald Trump or “we will come after you.”

The head of the Proud Boys in Florida said in an interview that his group was not responsible for the email threats.

The FBI and the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office were investigating, according to sheriff’s spokesman Art Forgey. The county elections office here said “dozens” of Democratic voters complained they had received the emails. At least some registered Democrats did not.

Registered Democrats who received the emails live in Alachua County – one of only nine counties in Florida where Trump lost in 2016 and home to the University of Florida campus. Later in the day Democrats elsewhere in Florida from Brevard, Charlotte and Clay counties also reported receiving them.

On Wednesday, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office confirmed people living in its jurisdiction had also received such emails.

"As with all suspicious emails, we recommend citizens never to provide
personal information or financial records. We encourage them not to respond
and to notify law enforcement," the sheriff's office wrote.

CBS News reported it examined two emails; one man in Alaska said he received such a message. They come as Florida's first day of in-person early voting began Monday.

The chairman of Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio of Miami, said his group did not send the emails. He made the remarks in an interview with Fresh Take Florida, a news service operated by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. Tarrio said he was cooperating with the FBI’s investigation.

“We don't do mass emails,” Tarrio said. “This is definitely, definitely not us.”