A man from Lehighton, Pa., was sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge to 18 months in prison for making Internet threats against Jews.
Corbin Kauffman, 32, received his sentencing on Tuesday after pleading guilty to one count of criminal information. He admitted that on March 13, 2019, he posted on social media a digitally created image of his hand aiming an AR-15 rifle at a group of Jewish men praying in a synagogue.
Kauffman used “various aliases online to post hundreds of anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-Muslim messages, images and videos,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Bruce Brandler said, “Vulnerable communities are entitled to feel safe in living their lives and exercising their own rights. Under federal law, when you target a person or a group because of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disability or sexual orientation, that is a hate crime. And we take hate crimes very seriously in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.”