A self-described member of the extremist Proud Boys group allegedly used Parler to threaten the life of Georgia Senator-elect Raphael Warnock and discuss traveling to the US Capitol to cause violence, authorities said Wednesday.
Eduard Florea, 40, was arrested at his home in Queens, New York, by the FBI on Tuesday night. There, authorities said they found more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition despite Florea previously having been convicted in 2013 of a firearms-related felony.
A self-described member of the extremist Proud Boys group allegedly used Parler to threaten the life of Georgia Senator-elect Raphael Warnock and discuss traveling to the US Capitol to cause violence, authorities said Wednesday.
Eduard Florea, 40, was arrested at his home in Queens, New York, by the FBI on Tuesday night. There, authorities said they found more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition despite Florea previously having been convicted in 2013 of a firearms-related felony.
Later that day, he allegedly wrote, "Let's go...I will be reaching out to patriots in my area so we can come up with a game plan...Here in New York we are target rich ... Dead men can't pass shit laws ... I will fight so help me god."
He was then said to have written several Parler posts about armed men heading from New York to DC: "The time for peace and civility is over." "It's time to unleash some violence," he also wrote.
Prosecutors said Florea did not ultimately travel to DC on Jan. 6.
Authorities also said that during an interview with investigators, he had admitted to owning the Parler account and the ammunition. An attorney for Florea told BuzzFeed News they had no comment.
Since Parler was used to plan and incite the violence of last week, Apple and Google have stopped offering the app in their online stores. Amazon has also stopped hosting Parler because it did not moderate its violent content, forcing the app offline.
In Florea's criminal complaint, the FBI said Parler had been used to plan actions on Jan. 6 at the Capitol.
"Members of the group coordinated their activities using social media platforms, including Parler," read the complaint.
When the Proud Boys sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending Patriots, they're sending felons and they're planning to commit felonies. They're bringing violence, they're bringing crime. They're traitors and all, I assume, are bad people but I speak to people online and they're telling me what we're getting.