Ex-Florida GOP congressional hopeful who threatened to kill Rep. Anna Paulina Luna during heated primary contest gets prison sentence
Florida – A former candidate for Congress from Florida will spend the next three years in federal prison after being found guilty of threatening a political opponent during a heated primary contest. A press release from the Department of Justice publicly revealed the harsh penalty the suspect has gotten.
William Robert Braddock III, 41 found himself in a federal courtroom on Wednesday to hear his fate. Braddock made a number of alarming threats against Anna Paulina Luna, his opponent in the contest for Florida’s 13th Congressional District, in 2021. The case has attracted a lot of attention because of its bizarre details and how severe the charges are.
In 2021, both Braddock and Luna were running for the Republican nomination. Luna won in the end, not only the primary but also the seat in Congress. But as the campaign was going on in public, FBI officials found out that Braddock had been making frightening comments behind the scenes over and over again.
A phone call in June 2021 between Braddock and Erin Olszewski, a Republican activist and friend of Luna’s, was at the center of the case. Braddock reportedly said during the call that he was connected to a “Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and that Luna would be killed if her campaign kept getting stronger. Braddock even said that such a hit might happen in less than 24 hours, stressing that it would be for the “good of the majority.”
Investigators found out more about Braddock’s actions, which included a lot of time spent talking negatively about Luna and trying to get involved in her personal and professional life. Braddock’s threats were scary, but there was no proof that he was really connected to overseas criminal groups or that he ever followed through on them.
Braddock left the US after the campaign. He first went to Thailand and then moved to the Philippines. He stayed in other countries for more than a year, and it wasn’t until he turned himself in to the police in Manila in 2023 that he came back to the U.S. After that, he was sent back to Florida to stand trial.
Braddock ultimately entered a guilty plea to a federal charge of transmitting threats to injure across state lines. The federal judge handed down a three-year sentence, concluding a bizarre and troubling chapter in Florida’s political landscape. Luna, for her part, went on to win re-election and continues to serve in Congress.
Court documents and officials made clear: while political battles can be intense, crossing the line into threats and criminal conduct will have serious consequences.
