A man accused of sending death threats to Ramaswamy has been arrested in New Hampshire

Federal authorities arrested a New Hampshire man and accused him of threatening to kill Vivek Ramaswamy and his supporters, the Justice Department said Monday.

Prosecutors said Tyler Anderson, a 30-year-old from Dover, threatened to kill Mr. Ramaswamy, a businessman and Republican presidential candidate, and participants at a campaign event scheduled for Monday in nearby Portsmouth. The threats were made in response to an automated campaign message inviting Mr. Anderson to attend the event, according to images of the texts in court documents. His messages implied that the threat would be carried out with a firearm.

Mr. Anderson was arrested Saturday after federal agents tracked the text messages to his phone and his home address, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in New Hampshire. Police also seized several firearms and recovered the threatening text messages from a deleted folder on Mr Anderson’s phone.

In an interview with an FBI agent after his arrest, the affidavit continued, Mr. Anderson acknowledged sending the threats, adding that he had also sent similar messages to other campaigns. Another federal agent discovered that such texts had been sent to another presidential campaign. Mr. Anderson was charged with communicating threats.

Dover police also told federal agents that they “had an interaction with Anderson on October 20” and reported other encounters in 2022 and 2011. The department declined to provide more information about these events and referred questions to federal prosecutors.

In a statement on Monday, the Ramaswamy campaign thanked law enforcement “for their speed and professionalism in handling this case.”

The statement went on to criticize the news media, “deranged voices” and “left-wing idiots,” accusing the groups of inciting violence against Republicans.

Mr. Anderson faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine if convicted. He appeared in federal court in Concord, the state capital, on Monday before being returned to temporary detention. Additional hearings in the case are scheduled for Thursday.

Alain Delaqueriere research contributed.