US expatriate arrested after allegedly threatening US senators and Marines
By Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand, CNN
(CNN) — An American living abroad was arrested last week on a charge of threatening US senators and political groups over the number of unsolicited political emails he was receiving, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
Eric Charles Welton, who has lived in Thailand for more than a decade, allegedly made multiple threatening calls from overseas in 2021 to the offices of North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and then-Sen. Richard Burr, according to court documents.
Welton, 51, was arrested Thursday at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as he returned to the United States from overseas, according to the Justice Department. He is facing one count of threatening a federal official and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
A lawyer for Welton is not yet listed on the public docket and he has not yet entered a formal plea. CNN has reached out to Burr and Tillis for comment.
During the calls, Welton allegedly threatened to kill people in the senators’ offices, saying that he would “fly back over there” and “put a bullet through each of your heads,” the court documents said. Welton allegedly railed against the number of emails he was getting, telling one staffer that he would find whoever sent the emails and cut off that person’s hands.
Welton also made calls to the White House switchboard and various advocacy groups, the court documents said.
In an interview with agents, Welton’s father said that Welton claimed to have received 600 unsolicited political emails and was “set off by ideas he did not agree with,” according to the court documents.
Welton also threated US Marines working in Thailand, according to court documents, after the US consulate in the country denied a visa application for his wife, who is a citizen of Thailand.
“Now I’m going to kill a bunch of Marines and that’s about all where it is, because you m*ther**kers are so f**king useless and worthless and that’s all you can tell me,” Welton allegedly said in a voicemail to the consulate in November. “So, you want those f**king Marines to live, you f**king contact me back.”
Walton continued by issuing threats to kill “everybody in your f**cking office,” the court documents said.
According to the criminal complaint, Welton lived near the consulate in Thailand and the US evaluated extraditing Welton to the US.
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