The Department of Justice’s new Election Threats Task Force issued its first indictment on Friday, arresting a Texas man who called for the assassination of election workers on Craigslist, offering $10,000 to anyone who would fulfill his request.

The DOJ alleges that Chad Christopher Stark, 54, wrote a threatening missive on the internet forum last January, calling for the murder of unnamed officials:

“Georgia Patriots it’s time for us to take back our state from these Lawless treasonous traitors. It’s time to invoke our Second Amendment right it’s time to put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese [Official A]. Then we work our way down to [Official B] the local and federal corrupt judges.”

Stark referenced a third official and her family and sought someone willing to “put a bullet her [sic] behind the ears.”

“milita up Georgia it’s time to spill blood,” he wrote.

He was charged with one count of communicating interstate threats.

The Washington Post adds key context:

Georgia officials, in particular, were targeted by a flood of hostile messages after they refused to back President Donald Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud. Trump himself called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) the “enemy of the people” after losing the election, and he urged Raffensperger in a phone call to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat.

Raffensperger declined to reveal on Friday if he was one of the officials Stark targeted, but he said in a statement: “I strongly condemn threats against election workers and those who volunteer in elections. These are the people who make our democracy work.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland alluded to Stark’s arrest at a mayors’ conference on Friday.

“There is no First Amendment right to unlawfully threaten to harm or kill someone and bitter historical experience has made clear that the time to address threats is when they occur, not after a tragedy has struck,” he said. “The Justice Department will continue to do all it can to hold accountable those who target public servants with violence or illegal threats of violence.”

CNN adds more details about the DOJ task force responsible for Friday’s indictment:

The task force, launched in June, is led by John Keller, a top attorney in the DOJ’s Public Integrity section, and includes members from the Criminal Division, Civil Rights Division and the FBI to address the rise in threats against election officials.A Justice Department spokesman said that threats against election workers have “historically been handled primarily as a state or local matter, usually without significant federal involvement” but that “changing rapidly in response to the surge in threats nationwide since the last election cycle.”