An El Cerrito man who clearly has a bone to pick with liberals, and who allegedly channeled his anger into specific, violent threats via email to Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, also apparently sent similar threats to federal judge Charles Breyer.

45-year-old David Pokorny faces a potential grand jury indictment for threats he allegedly sent in September, via email, first to the US Attorney's Office in San Francisco regarding US District Judge Charles Breyer, and then to Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.

As Bay Area News Group reports, Pokorny, while apparently staying in a hotel in the San Diego area, is accused of writing 11 emails directed at Breyer on September 2, 2025, making various threats including saying he wanted to "skin" the judge alive.

Pokorny also allegedly referred to Breyer as an "enemy combatant," and wrote of his threats, "We have a legal right to do this because California courts & judges rule in favor of godless socialists." He also allegedly said, "I am a terrorist, and I’m happy to spill your blood. Spilling the blood of tyrants like you feels good. It feels real good :-)."

These threats would have come on the same day that Breyer issued a high-profile ruling that found that Trump's deployment of National Guard troops and Marines in Los Angeles in June constituted an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement purposes.

So we know where Pokorny stands on that issue.

About a week later, according to Alameda County prosecutors, Pokorny allegedly shot off an email to Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee that included racially charged threats, and continued sending other emails over three weeks, which were not discovered by a staffer until September 22. These emails got Pokorny arrested in October, and he has been held in Santa Rita Jail ever since.

In those emails, Pokorny allegedly called Lee a "psychopath," said "I’m going to torture and murder you," and wrote charming things like, "I want all the [N-word] in Oakland killed. They’re an unhealthy pest. If you want to keep the [expletive] alive, then I want you killed, too."

He even made broader threats, per KTVU, allegedly, writing, "I think we should kill all of the government officials in Oakland and all of the police officers and judges in Oakland as well."

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Pokorny with threatening a public official with a hate-crime enhancement. And federal prosecutors also charged Pokorny with a single count of threats against a judicial officer.

Pokorny was scheduled for a preliminary hearing at the federal courthouse in Oakland on Wednesday, however that was postponed, as Bay Area News Group reports. Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Matthew Mateer reportedly raised the possibility of a coming grand jury indictment, which would negate the need for a preliminary, evidentiary hearing — and this may include both the threats against Mayor Lee and the threats aimed at Judge Breyer in a single, superceding indictment.

Top image: Photo of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland via Wikimedia