A 42-year-old man from Chesterfield Township in Macomb County, Michigan, has been arrested and charged in federal court with threatening to kill FBI Director Kash Patel and an associate of the director, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced on Friday, October 30.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Anthony Daniel Palazzolo was taken into custody on October 30, 2026. United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. announced the charge, joined by Jennifer Runyan, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Detroit field office. Palazzolo appeared in federal court in Detroit the same afternoon and was temporarily detained, with a detention hearing set for Monday, November 2.
What the criminal complaint alleges
According to the criminal complaint, the case began with a message sent over Facebook on October 8, 2026. Prosecutors allege that Palazzolo wrote to the associate — identified in court papers only as Victim-1, or V-1 — saying he had “put a hit out” on V-1, and that Patel was a “dead mf too.” The associate's name has not been made public by prosecutors.
The complaint further alleges that the threats did not stop after the FBI interviewed Palazzolo. Prosecutors say he continued to harass a Detroit FBI agent by phone, threatening to come up to the office and “use deadly force against every single one of you government officials,” adding, in the Justice Department's partially redacted account, that FBI and Secret Service personnel would all be killed.
The Justice Department stresses that a criminal complaint is only a charging document and is not evidence of guilt. Palazzolo is entitled to a fair trial at which the government would have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and he is presumed innocent unless and until that happens.
Who is running the case
The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eaton Brown. The announcement was made jointly by U.S. Attorney Gorgon and FBI Special Agent in Charge Runyan, whose Detroit division covers the whole of Michigan. WDIV ClickOnDetroit, the NBC affiliate in Detroit, also reported the arrest and charge on October 31, identifying Palazzolo as a Macomb County man facing federal charges.
Why the case is drawing attention
Threats against senior federal law-enforcement officials are prosecuted in federal court, and this case names the sitting director of the FBI himself as an alleged target. Patel, who leads the bureau, is the first Indian-American to serve as FBI director — a fact that gives the case an added resonance for South Asian and Punjabi readers in Michigan, where metro Detroit and Macomb County are home to a growing South Asian community, including many families who work in trucking, small business and the auto industry.
Chesterfield Township, where Palazzolo lives, is a community of Macomb County northeast of Detroit. The case will proceed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the federal court based in Detroit.
What happens next
The next step is the detention hearing on Monday, November 2, at which a federal judge will decide whether Palazzolo remains in custody while the case moves forward. After an arrest on a criminal complaint, federal prosecutors must then take the case to a grand jury for an indictment or establish probable cause at a preliminary hearing before the case can go toward trial. No trial date has been set, and prosecutors have not publicly named the associate, V-1, or announced any additional charges.