The sister of a former Murray, Kentucky, resident who faces federal charges for allegedly threatening to kill a public official said she is “heartbroken.” According to court documents, 32-year-old Nathanial Blaine Luffman was arrested last week after allegedly making email and phone threats to unnamed individuals, one of whom is a public official.
Numerous media outlets are drawing a connection between Luffman’s arrest and Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul’s comments this week that a man had threatened to kill him and his family. Paul tweeted on Monday, “Thank you to the US Capitol Police for their arrest of the man who recently threatened to kill my family and me.” He also described the nature of the threat at a Rotary Club meeting in Kentucky on Monday. Paul did not name the suspect. Capitol Police told WKU Public Radio “We do not comment on ongoing investigations.” WKMS News does not have credible information specifically confirming a connection between Luffman and Paul.
Attorneys involved in the case have not returned requests for information. According to court documents, Luffman was investigated by U.S. Capitol Police and was arrested last week after making threats to kill unnamed individuals, one of whom is a public official described as “a United States official, a United States judge, [or] a Federal law enforcement officer.”
Here’s what we do know:
Luffman is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California on Thursday, July 5. He was served an arrest warrant on June 27, following a criminal complaint on June 25 in Portland, Oregon, where he has lived for the past few years. According to his family, Luffman was recently in Berkeley, California. He is lodged in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California.
The maximum penalty for the criminal offense includes 6 years of imprisonment for threatening assault or 10 years of imprisonment for threatening to kidnap or murder, a $250,000 fine, a 3-year term of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.
According to an affidavit from Capitol Police in criminal complaint documents, Luffman allegedly sent an email to USCP Special Agent Vernida Long and several employees with the Oregon State government with the subject line “[Victim 1] and [Victim 2] Found Dead Execution/Suicide.”The email contains vulgar language and threats of murder and graphic violence. The report identifies “Victim 1” as a woman who is not a U.S. official, U.S. judge or Federal law enforcement officer. “Victim 2” is identified as an individual who is one of the public officials described. Names redacted from the email transcription are described as the children of Victim 2.
The documents state the email address used, “has been on record with USCP since 2017 and has been associated with other known threatening communications to members of Congress.”
The documents also note a check of law enforcement databases that revealed Luffman has a history of threatening U.S. government officials.
USCP’s Threat Assessment Section was contacted on June 25 by a staff member with Victim 2’s Portland office who reported a threatening voicemail they had received that morning with threats to harm Victim 2’s family. (Senator Paul does not have an office in Portland.)
In the voicemail, the caller allegedly identifies himself as “Nathanial Blaine.” The voice mail mentions visiting Victim 2’s office to discuss “an assassination plot against President Obama in Kentucky to cover up a organized crime ring where he receives prostitution services.” The voice mail also makes note of the execution of family members and states, “I’m going to teach you a lesson…” and continues in graphic detail about “hacking to pieces” the victim’s daughters.” The voicemail allegedly ends with a call to “play war” against the victim for “trying to hurt papa Obama.”
Response From Family
Luffman’s sister, Crystal Settle, said the family has tried to get mental help for her brother and said flaws in the system have prevented them from being able to do that.
“I’m not condoning what Nate did at all. It was wrong and we are glad that he got picked up because we’ve been trying to accomplish that for almost three years now,” she said.
Settle said since Luffman began showing symptoms he has not had much contact with the family. She said efforts to reach out have been met with negative response.
“Three years ago he was totally normal. A normal kid,” she said. “You never would have thought he would do anything like that. And when he first started showing symptoms and we were trying to get him help, it escalated.” She said he had been court-ordered for mental health evaluation but was released early. “And since he knew that we were trying to get him help, he took off… He doesn’t see the need… He doesn’t have the ability to reason right now.”
Luffman’s sister said attempts to commit him unwillingly had been unsuccessful due to his civil rights. “So even though it was obvious that he needed help and had been making threats to so many people it wasn’t enough to get him help unless he was an active threat to himself or others,” she said. “Since there was never a time that it was an active threat everybody blew it off to where it escalates to this. It should never, ever, come to this,” she said, adding it should have stopped at threats to family, allowing them to get him help at that point.
Settle said the family felt they had to play a waiting game in terms of getting him help until he crossed a line. “To me, that is unacceptable,” she said. “With the school shootings and the mass shootings now it is unacceptable to wait and watch for some suspected mentally ill person to finally cross that line and then it’s too late.” She said the incident and arrest is a “perfect example” of how the family should have been able to get help for Luffman.
She said the family has not been in contact with Luffman since the arrest. “He probably would not accept the phone call,” she said.
Settle acknowledged that it sounds bad for the family to say they’re glad he was caught or in trouble, “But we’re glad that it happened because this is what it took for a step in the right direction to get him help.”
“I would like the message to be out there that the family has tried and every time we get close we hit a brick wall and it boils down to his civil rights being protected. There are definitely holes in the mental health system, especially in Kentucky,” she said.
Settle added that the incident can’t be linked to a political party because she said he associates himself with “so many different things,” bouncing between ideologies on social media. She said most of the time he believes he’s “a Republican Senator from Kentucky.”
She added that Senator Paul is in a political position to help fix flaws in the mental health system.
Attorney Katie Burroughs Meadaris is representing the United States in the case. A call to her office was not answered. Federal public defender Hanni Fakhoury representing Luffman did not answer the phone. Assistant U.S. Attorney Abraham Simmons did not answer the phone. A call to the Capitol Police was not answered.
