Glenwood Springs — Sources working with a political group trying to oust Colorado’s incendiary Western Slope Congresswoman, Lauren Boebert, say they’ve recently received threats and now fear for their safety.
One of those sources told The Denver Post they were threatened late last week at a health spa in Glenwood Springs, which concerned them enough to report the matter to police. The matter is now under investigation, Glenwood Springs police officials say.
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The political action committee American Muckrakers began soliciting potentially damaging information about Boebert, of Silt, in May under the Twitter handle @FireBoebert and connected with multiple, unnamed sources who shared stories, often salacious, about the congresswoman.
American Muckrakers published several of those stories from anonymous sources this month, prompting a response from one of Boebert’s lawyers, Jonathan Anderson, who threatened to sue the group, headed by David Wheeler, a former Democratic candidate for the North Carolina Senate.
Anderson sent Wheeler a three-page letter Wednesday outlining the claims against Boebert and refuting them as “patently false.”
Two days later one of Wheeler’s sources told The Denver Post they were threatened at a Glenwood Springs health spa by a man who approached them, asking about politics and indicating that he knew where the source lived.
“The skin on the back of my neck went up,” the source said. “I went into high alert.”
The source, who asked not to be identified due to fear of retribution, and Wheeler both said they weren’t accusing Boebert of orchestrating the threat but called on her to condemn the actions.
A representative for Boebert could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wheeler and the source then reported the incident to Glenwood Springs police. Sergeant Michael Prough confirmed that officers received the report and that Wheeler and his source believe the incident to be connected to their efforts against Boebert.
Prough said the matter remains under investigation but so far police have no reason to believe the threats were falsely reported.
Wheeler said in a press release that two other people in communication with him are currently “in hiding… after an unannounced visit by three individuals which led them to feel that they were being threatened.”
Wheeler’s committee took aim earlier this year at U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, of North Carolina, to some success. Cawthorn lost his primary race last month.
While additional information about the reported threats was not immediately available, the occurrence of politically motivated threats across the country is on the rise, the New York Times reported.
The issue also arose in Colorado after Republican officials in Douglas County published the names and addresses of public health employees in apparent retaliation for COVID-19 safety measures and lockdowns, the Douglas County News Express reported.
Boebert is currently running for a second term in Congress and faces a Republican challenger — state Sen. Don Coram — in the June 28 primary election.
