Iowa man who threatened Arizona officials over 2020 election gets 2.5 years in prison

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — A man convicted of threatening an Arizona election official and the state’s former attorney general has been sentenced to prison. Mark A. Rissi, 64, of Iowa, was sentenced on Monday to federal prison for two and a half years. Rissi pleaded guilty back in April to two counts of making threatening interstate communications. Once out of prison, he will be placed on 3 years probation.

On Sept. 27, 2021, Rissi left a voicemail for the then Maricopa County Board of Supervisor Clint Hickman, threatening to lynch him. “Hello, Mr. Hickman,” Rissi said in the voicemail. “I am glad that you are standing up for democracy and want to place your hand on the Bible and say that the election was honest and fair. I really appreciate that. When we come to lynch your stupid lying Commie (expletive), you’ll remember that you lied on the (expletive) Bible, you piece of (expletive). You’re gonna die, you piece of (expletive). We’re going to hang you. We’re going to hang you.”

On Dec. 8 of the same year, he left another voicemail with then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s Office, claiming the 2020 election was “fraudulent across the state” and also threatening to lynch the official for not doing his job.

“This message is for Attorney General Mark Brnovich,” Rissi said in the voicemail. “I’m a victim of a crime. My family is a victim of a crime. My extended family is a victim of a crime. That crime was the theft of the 2020 election. The election that was fraudulent across the state of Arizona, that the attorney general knows was fraudulent, that the attorney general has images of the conspirators deleting election fraud data from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors computer system. Do your job, Brnovich, or you will hang with those (expletive) in the end. We will see to it. Torches and pitchforks. That’s your future, (expletive). Do your job.”

Assistant Director for the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division, Luis Quesada, said of the sentencing:

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