Feds nab ‘Proud’ jerk
Say Qns. wannabe threatened to attack pols
A heavily armed Proud Boys wannabe from Queens stood back and stood by Wednesday as Brooklyn federal prosecutors accused him of leveling death threats against Georgia Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock and other politicians.
Eduard Florea, 40, watched via video feed as prosecutors described the discovery of his hateful and murderous posts on the far-right Parler app, along with a raid on his home, where authorities seized about 1,000 rounds of rifle ammunition, 24 shotgun shells, 75 combat knives, two hatchets and two swords.
“Dead men can’t write s—t laws,” read one of Florea’s Jan. 6 posts in the online forum. Authorities said the menacing remark referenced Warnock, a Black Democrat elected in Georgia’s Jan. 5 runoff election.
The post was written from the defendant’s Middle Village home on the same day as last week’s U.S. Capitol riot, officials said.
One day earlier, Florea — under the screen name “LoneWolfWar” — cast a wider net with another post referencing lawmakers in general: “I catch one of you f——-s in D.C. tomorrow, I’m definitely slicing a throat.”
Photos obtained Wednesday by the Daily News captured an armored FBI vehicle rolling down the suspect’s street and the moment Florea raised his hands in surrender Tuesday night outside his home.
“Florea, a previously convicted felon, made various social media posts about his plan to travel to Washington, D.C., to engage in acts of violence,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney. “We saved him a trip and paid him a visit instead.”
Florea was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sanket Bulsara after Brooklyn federal prosecutor Francisco Navarro argued the defendant was a flight risk. Florea is due back in court Jan. 27.
“This is not just idle talk,” Navarro said of the threats. “The defendant told the FBI he supports the Proud Boys, an extremist organization, and he had applied to join . ... You can’t condemn what happened at the Capitol and hang out with the Proud Boys.”
According to the prosecutor, Florea accompanied members of the ultraright group when they vandalized a Washington church Dec. 12. And in another Jan. 6 web posting, he advocated violence in the aftermath of President Trump’s November election loss to Joe Biden.
“The time for peace and civility are over,” he wrote. “Three cars of armed patriots, guns cleaned and loaded, got a bunch of other guys waiting to deploy.”
Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg of Brooklyn Federal Defenders, while acknowledging that Florea wrote “some blather on the internet,” noted he was not in any car, does not own a car and never went to Washington for the riot at the U.S. Capitol following an incendiary speech by Trump.
She added that Florea is simply charged in the federal criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday with illegal possession of ammunition, not with making online threats.
“He rejects the entrance of any individual into the Capitol,” she said. “He does not condone [what happened on Jan. 6].”
An ex-pal of the suspect said he didn’t believe Florea is as dangerous as the feds claim. “He’s a dog with all bark and no bite,” said Jake Preda, 41, who says he was friends with Florea for more than 25 years until they had a falling-out in 2015.
“He’s just a passive-aggressive guy,” Preda said. “When he’s faced with a lot of stress he will pop off.”
Florea was nabbed as part of a nationwide manhunt for alleged extremists who either participated in the Capitol siege or may be plotting a repeat around the presidential inauguration next Wednesday.
Navarro cited Florea’s conviction in 2014 for possession of illegal guns on Staten Island, and a criminal case the same year in involving choking his wife.
But Eisner-Grynberg noted her client served a year in jail on the gun offense, his lone criminal conviction. She added that Florea was a software engineer employed since 2002, and lives with his wife and their two children — ages 8 and 4.
In the end, Judge Bulsara sided with prosecutors. “While events were unfolding [at the Capitol], Mr. Florea continued to post and make clear, frankly, what reflects a premeditated plan to exact violence against people in New York and people in Washington — against United States senators,” Bulsara ruled.