Angry' California man arrested for threatening FCC chairman Ajit Pai's family in vile emails

Law enforcement arrested a 33-year-old California man on Friday who police allege threatened to murder Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's family.

What are the details?

According to the Justice Department, the man threatened Pai's family "for Pai’s role in repealing regulations relating to net neutrality."

Court documents show the suspect, Markara Man, sent three threatening emails to Pai in December, one of which explicitly threatened Pai's children. From the Justice Department's press release:

The first email accused Chairman Pai of being responsible for a child who allegedly had committed suicide because of the repeal of net neutrality regulations. The second email listed three locations in or around Arlington, and threatened to kill the Chairman’s family members. The third email had no message in its body, but included an image depicting Chairman Pai and, in the foreground and slightly out of focus, a framed photograph of Chairman Pai and his family.

The FBI confronted Man in May after tracing the origin of the emails. He admitted to investigators he sent the emails because he was "angry" over the FCC's decision to repeal net neutrality last December.

The DOJ said Man is charged with "threatening to murder a member of the immediate family of a U.S. official with the intent to intimidate or interfere with such official while engaged in the performance of official duties, or with the intent to retaliate against such official on account of the performance of official duties."

Man is facing up to 10 years in federal prison, the maximum sentence for the crime he allegedly committed.

Anything else?

Politico reported that Man sent the threatening emails from an anonymous gmail account he created — STUBBLEMANLINESS@GMAIL.COM — a name he thought sounded "tougher," and therefore more intimidating.

Man also gave investigators an apology letter addressed to Pai, which read: "I'm sorry I made a threat against your kids. That was crossing the line. I hope you'll change your mind...but I doubt it."