A Colorado man who wrote online about how he had the right to execute then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs — who later became Arizona's governor — and made similar threats against Jena Griswold, the Colorado secretary of state, was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison.
Teak Ty Brockbank blamed being exposed to far-right extremism content online, including the QAnon conspiracy theory, for motivating him to make online threats.
In the criminal complaint for the case, FBI agents included posts from Brockbank that included the common QAnon catchphrase “WWG1WGA” and references to other QAnon beliefs.
Acronyms are popular among the QAnon community, and the most well known is WWG1WGA, meaning “Where We Go One, We Go All,” a phrase used as a rallying cry among the “digital soldiers” of the QAnon community.
Brockbank’s online avatar was a version of a cartoon frog that has become popular in antisemitic, conspiracy theory and racist online circles.
In August 2022, Brockbank posted on the video service Rumble, which has become a favorite platform for misinformation, that people like Hobbs and Griswold were committing treason for alleged election fraud. There is no evidence of widespread election fraud or election fraud perpetrated by Hobbs or Griswold.
“Once these people start getting put to death then the rest will melt like snowflakes and turn on each other and we will sit back why (sic) the worst of them get pointed against the wall as well,” Brockbank wrote in a comment on a Rumble video. “This is the only way. So those of us that have the stomach for what has to be done should prepare our minds for what we All are going to do!!!!!!”
Brockbank, who used to live in Cave Creek, also claimed that he had a right to “execute” Hobbs in public.
“[W]e the people have every right to walk up to one of them and execute them for their actions,” Brockbank wrote in another comment on Rumble.
FBI agents also discovered posts Brockbank made stating that, if federal agents came to his residence, he would murder them.
“ATF CIA FBI show up to my house I am shooting them peace’s (sic) of shit first No Warning!!” Brockbank wrote in response to a post about the arrest of an ATF agent. “Then I will call the sheriff!!! With everything that these piece of shit agencies have done I am completely justified to just start dropping them as soon as they step on my property!”
While Brockbank said in court that he regrets his decisions and has blamed drinking for his behavior, the U.S. Department of Justice in a recent filing pointed to threatening remarks he aimed at federal officials as recently as 2024 and the discovery he was possessing firearms, when he is a prohibited felony possessor, as indicators of his insincerity.
“There was so much ammunition in the residence that agents elected not to count it,” the DOJ wrote. “The firearm near the front door, moreover, was loaded and cocked.”
Hobbs declined to comment on the sentencing.