Philly man charged with threatening to kill and skin a political party operative recruiting Election Day poll watchers

Federal authorities on Monday charged a Philadelphia man with vowing to kill and skin a campaign operative who was seeking volunteers to work as Election Day poll watchers — a case officials say underscores growing concerns over the possibility of political violence in the state.

Prosecutors say John Courtney Pollard, 62, of Roxborough, responded to a social media post in September from the operative — and employee for a state political party — looking to recruit people to monitor the polls.

The post included the operative’s cell phone number. But after initially texting to inquire about signing up, Pollard bombarded the party official with vulgar text messages, including one in which he threatened to “skin you alive and use your skin for f— toilet paper,” according to court documents filed in federal court in Pittsburgh.

Authorities did not immediately identify the victim or the political party on whose behalf he or she was working. They also did not say in court filings whether the operative was recruiting poll watchers for Pennsylvania or another state.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Pittsburgh, which is prosecuting the case, did not respond to requests for comment.

Pollard, who describes himself in his LinkedIn profile as a stage manager for a number of recent productions of Philadelphia’s Quintessence Theatre Group, has been registered as a Democrat in Pennsylvania since at least 2022, according to state records.

He faces one felony count of transmitting interstate threats — a felony crime punishable by up five years in prison.

It was not clear from court filings whether Pollard had retained an attorney or whether he had been released on bail after an initial court appearance Monday in Philadelphia.

The case was brought as part of the Justice Department’s Elections Threat Task Force, an initiative launched three years ago by Attorney General Merrick Garland amid a rise in violent rhetoric targeting elected, appointed, and volunteer election workers. Since then, the department has brought charges against nearly two dozen people nationwide for allegedly threatening election workers.

“These cases are a warning: If you threaten to harm or kill an election worker or official or volunteer, the Justice Department will find you,” Garland said at a meeting of the task force last month. “And we will hold you accountable.”

Those efforts come as both Republicans and Democrats have in recent months been recruiting poll watchers across Pennsylvania to serve as their eyes and ears at polling locations and vote counting centers on Election Day. Trump has pitched his campaign’s recruitment effort as a bid to protect the vote from fraud, despite a lack of any evidence of widespread misconduct surrounding the vote.

Pollard’s arrest comes amid growing law enforcement concern over election-related threats in Pennsylvania and other battleground states.

A joint intelligence bulletin issued earlier this month by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned that violent extremists with “election-related grievances” could look to target political candidates, election workers or other perceived political opponents in the coming weeks.

The memo cited other incidents of election-related threats during the 2024 campaign, including letters containing white powder sent to election officials, fake bomb threats to state capitol buildings, and “swatting” phone calls, in which callers anonymously file false reports of a crime to draw law enforcement to their victims’ homes.

“In many of these instances, the perpetrators and their motives remain under investigation,” the memo said, “but their actions likely are intended to instill fear and disrupt election operations.”

Staff writer Katie Bernard contributed to this article.