FBI Building in Washington DC. Billy Hathorn/Wikimedia Commons

A Michigan man who allegedly threatened to kill Jewish state government officials was on Wednesday charged with transmitting interstate threats following an investigation conducted by the FBI and state police.

“I’m heading back to Michigan now threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish [sic] in the Michigan govt if they don’t leave, or confess, and now that kind of problem,” Jack Eugene Carpenter III, who claimed to be a former employee of University of Michigan, tweeted on Feb. 18, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. “Because I can legally do that right?”

The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center  (NTOC) detected Carpenter’s tweet and alerted Michigan State Police Trooper Michael Daniels, who shared that he had recently contacted Carpenter about a handgun he stole from his girlfriend. The conversation began a process that led to Carpenter’s being traced to a suburb in Fort Worth, Texas. At the time, he possessed three handguns, one of which was “an M1A, military style weapon,” according to court documents.

Carpenter, the complaint alleged, had posted on his Twitter account a Declaration of Sovereignty claiming that he had founded a new country, “New Israel,” in Lenawee County. He appears to have been a covid-19 conspiracy theorist, writing in another tweet that “any Jewish person holding a public office on my land…is subject to immediate punishment for their participation in an unlawful war of  aggression using biological weapons against me.”

“You may leave, confess, and resign to a private life or be punished,” he continued. “I have deemed you guilty. Judgement has been given. I will not tolerate anymore [sic] games. I’ve given enough chances. Confessions will remain classified unless caught committing another crime. You have been warned. Heed my warning.”

Carpenter’s criminal record include assault charges and an order of protection that he was never served, according to a local NBC affiliate. He is currently in lockup at a federal court in Detroit and will, the Detroit Free Press reported, attend a detention hearing on Friday.

On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the FBI confirmed that any act of violence would have targeted her.

“I was a target of the heavily armed defendant in this matter,” Nessel tweeted. “It is my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes & Domestic Terrorism Unit takes plots to murder elected officials.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.