A father and son arrested by FBI agents on Thursday for allegedly harassing Sarah Palin’s attorney called his office over 500 times earlier this month and left vile voicemail messages threatening the attorney, according to federal court documents unsealed Friday morning.
Pennsylvania residents Craig Christy, 47, and his son Shawn Christy, 19, were arrested in their home state and charged in federal court in Alaska for making the harassing phone calls to Palin lawyer John Tiemessen. He had obtained a restraining order against the father and son in state court back in May because of previous harassment.
On Aug. 1, the younger Christy allegedly left a message for Tiemessen threatening to kidnap the lawyers’s children unless he was paid off and suggested he might rape Palin. In a later message, Shawn Christy allegedly said that he would rape one of the attorneys in the office.
On Aug. 4, the elder Christy allegedly threatened to kill Tiemessen and harass his family.
“I’m going to press your f**king buttons for the rest of your life,” Craig Christy allegedly said. “Wait until I start finding out where all your family members live cause I’m going to put them all over the worldwide web.”
“I tell you motherf**ker, you’re playing with the wrong f**king boy. I tell you what, you want to play f**king games like that, I’ll f**king kill you,” Craig Christy allegedly said in another message. “There’s a f**king threat now f**king bring it on motherf**ker. You got that? You wanna f**k with my boy like that, I will come and f**king kill you….”
Tiemessen estimated he received about 150 calls on Aug. 3, dozens and dozens of calls on Aug. 4, and approximately 250 calls to his direct line on Aug. 8. A receptionist in Tiemessen’s law firm said the Fairbank office received 437 calls on the main line over a few days. Tiemessen said hundreds of calls went directly to his line and that the Christys harassed his uncle and his sister.
“The Christys have been upset about the restraining orders as evidenced by the frequency of calls and their references to the restraining orders,” FBI Special Agent Jacqueline A. DeCou wrote in an affidavit. DeCou wrote that the calls were continuing when she wrote the affidavit on Aug. 12.
An FBI spokesman told Reuters that Palin and her family were the targets of the harassment. The affidavit includes an alleged threat against Palin, but doesn’t indicate that the father and son harassed her or her family directly. An Alaska state court order Shawn Christy not to contact Palin in Sept. 2010. That order was renewed in May, and a similar order was issued against his father, Reuters reported.
The FBI affidavit, which includes 21 uses of the f-word, threats of sexual violence and an anti-Semitic insult, is available here.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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