Federal charges have been levied against a Pennsylvania man for posting online threats against Jews and other minorities.
Corbin Kauffman, 31, posted a threatening image on a social media website on March 13, 2019, that featured a digitally created image of his arm and hand aiming an AR-15 rifle at praying Jewish men gathered in what looks like a synagogue, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
He used various aliases online to post hundreds of antisemitic, anti-black and anti-Muslim messages, images and videos, U.S. Attorney David Freed said.
Kauffman, of Lehighton, was charged earlier this week with interstate transmission of threats to injure the person of another.
He also posted pictures of acts of vandalism he committed, including vandalizing a display case at the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center in Ocean City, Maryland, with white supremacist and antisemitic stickers. Kauffman faces additional state charges in Pennsylvania and Maryland for those incidents.
“The last thing we want is to see another tragedy like we saw at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, or at Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, or at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston,” Freed said. “We don’t know what might have happened.”
Kauffman faces up to five years in jail for each violation, a term of supervised release following imprisonment and a fine.