American charged with threats against Jews, Muslims and blacks

Pennsylvania man posted image of himself pointing an AR-15 rifle at a group of praying Jewish men

Illustrative: A white supremacist carrying a Nazi flag into Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017. (AP/Steve Helber/File)

SCRANTON, Pa. — Federal prosecutors said Thursday a Pennsylvania man created a digital image of himself pointing an AR-15 rifle at a group of praying Jewish men and posted it online.

The image is one of several alleged threats against Jewish, Muslim and black people that authorities say were posted by 30-year-old Corbin Kauffman.

They say the resident of the town of Lehighton, 77 miles north of Philadelphia, also sprayed anti-Semitic graffiti at a park; plastered an Ocean City, Maryland, Jewish center’s display case with white supremacist and anti-Semitic stickers; and posted photos of the vandalism.

Kauffman was charged last week with interstate transmission of threats. Federal prosecutors announced the charge Thursday.

A poster for a book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg was vandalized in Brooklyn, March, 2019. (Chevi Friedman/Twitter/via JTA)

Kauffman’s lawyer declined to comment.

Last fall, a gunman with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons opened fire at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, killing 11. Authorities in that case say Robert Bowers expressed hatred of Jews.

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