Georgia says false bomb threats came from Russia

Five bomb threats led to a temporary interruption of voting at two polling stations in the US state of Georgia this Tuesday (5), and the local government said that these threats – which were not confirmed – came from Russia.

According to information from CNN, the case occurred in Union City, a city in Fulton County, whose headquarters is Atlanta.

Nadine Williams, the county’s director of registration and elections, said at a news conference that both polling stations were evacuated and voting was halted for about 30 minutes.

“Fortunately, these locations are operating again and all polling locations are secure with an active security presence,” said Williams, who said he would petition the court to have those polling locations open later today to compensate. the time they were closed.

Hours after the incident, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told the press that the false threats originated in Russia.

“We heard about some threats that were Russian in origin,” Raffensperger said. “In the name of public safety, we always check and will continue to be very responsible when we hear about things like this,” he added, without giving details on how the Georgian government ascertained that the bomb threats came from Russia.

On Monday (4), the eve of the United States election, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reported in a statement that a Georgia election official was arrested for sending a letter to the Jones County elections superintendent with threats to servers in the area.

According to the release, Nicholas Wimbish, 25, of Milledgeville, got into an argument with a voter at the county election office on Oct. 16.

The next day, after doing research into what information about him was available online, Wimbish sent an anonymous letter to the county posing as the voter he had argued with.

The letter contained a threat to send a bomb to the election officials’ workplace and other promises of aggression: the “young” male officials would be “beaten up if they fight me” and would suffer “the punishment of shooting for treason if they fight back,” and the female employees would be “raped with fury” and should be careful “with every move they make”.

The DOJ pointed out that Wimbish was accused of sending a bomb threat, transmitting false information about a bomb threat, sending a threatening letter and making false statements to the FBI. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.