US man arrested for threatening Jewish Michigan officials

Michigan's attorney general has said she was one of the targets of man arrested last week for threatening Jewish officials in the US state.

The FBI arrested Jack Eugene Carpenter III, who is accused of saying online he would "carry out the punishment of death" on Jewish government officials.

He has been charged with making threatening interstate communications.

Dana Nessel said on Thursday the FBI confirmed she was among the targets of the "heavily armed defendant".

"It is my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes & Domestic Terrorism Unit takes plots to murder elected officials," the attorney general tweeted.

Mr Carpenter owned several firearms, the FBI said in a criminal complaint.

He was arrested on 21 February in Texas and appeared in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Assistant US Attorney Hank Moon argued Mr Carpenter - who requested a court-appointed lawyer - should not be released on bond.

"When the defendant was arrested in his vehicle, they found approximately a half dozen firearms and ammunition," Mr Moon said, according to the outlet.

The BBC has reached out to the public defender's office for comment.

Mr Carpenter is accused of tweeting on 17 February, while he was reportedly in Texas, that he was "heading back to Michigan now threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish in the Michigan govt if they don't leave, or confess".

He also allegedly tweeted that "any attempt to subdue me will be met with deadly force in self-defense", according to the FBI complaint, which was unsealed on Wednesday.

On a Twitter account the FBI said belonged to Mr Carpenter, the Michigan resident claimed to have been fired from his job "for refusing to take experimental medication", seemingly referencing the Covid vaccine.

An interstate communications charge carries a possible five year prison sentence, if convicted.

Mr Carpenter's arrest comes months after two men were sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.