Man sentenced over threats to "hang" Arizona officials over 2020 election

An Iowa man was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for death threats against Arizona's former attorney general and a Maricopa County election official over the 2020 election, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

The big picture: The case was part of the DOJ's Election Threats Task Force, which it created to address increasing threats of violence against election workers around the U.S.

• Despite efforts to address threats, a third of local election workers reported being abused, harassed or threatened over their work, per a March poll from the Brennan Center for Justice.

Driving the news: The Justice Department said court documents showed Mark Rissi, 64, of Hiawatha, threatened to "lynch" an official with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in a voicemail in September 2021.

• "When we come to lynch your stupid lying Commie [expletive], you'll remember that you lied on the [expletive] Bible, you piece of [expletive]," Rissi said in the voicemail, according to prosecutors. "You're gonna die, you piece of [expletive]. We're going to hang you."
• The documents showed that in December 2021, Rissi in another voicemail threatened to hang then-Attorney General of Arizona Mark Brnovich.
• The voicemails indicated Rissi threatened to kill both officials over false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, specifically over votes cast in Arizona.

Flashback: Rissi previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sending a threatening interstate communication.

Go deeper: Election officials say threats and harassment aren't abating