Colorado man sentenced for threatening election officials, blames exposure to online conspiracy theories
DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) – The Colorado man who pleaded guilty to threatening Secretary of State Jena Griswold and other elected officials online, claiming that online extremism had motivated his actions, was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday.
According to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office, a federal district court judge sentenced Teak Ty Brockbank on May 29 to 37 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
In October, Brockbank pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting interstate threats for posting violent messages targeting multiple elected officials online, including Secretary of State Jena Griswold and former Secretary of State and current Governor of Arizona Katie Hobbs, between September 2021 and July 2024.
In one such post from September 2021, Brockbank wrote that Colorado’s top election official should “hang by the neck till she is Dead Dead Dead," according to a plea agreement.
According to the Associated Press (AP), some of Brockbank’s threats against Griswold were linked to her role in prosecuting Tina Peters, later convicted for a 2020 election data-breach scheme.
The plea agreement also states that Brockbank threatened a Colorado judge who was overseeing his DUI case, and wrote that he would shoot any federal agents who came to his house.
Brockbank was arrested in August of 2024 in Cortez, Colorado. At the time of his arrest, he was illegally in possession of multiple firearms, the Secretary of State's Office said.
During sentencing, Brockbank's attorneys argued he had been "brainwashed" by conspiracy theories and extremism on alt-right social networks like Gab and Rumble during a time when he was isolated and heavily drinking.
Following Brockbank's sentencing, Griswold issued a statement, which read:
"The far right has spread conspiracy theories to incite threats and violence against secretaries of state and election officials. I will not be intimidated and I will not back down in protecting our democracy and our freedoms."
In June 2021, the Justice Department created a special "Election Threats Task Force" to address growing threats of violence against election officials. Brockbank’s conviction is one of more than a dozen the unit has secured since its creation, AP reports.
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