Beaverton Man Sentenced for Threatening Email to Whistleblower Attorney

A Beaverton man is in prison after making threats to an attorney known to represent a federal whistleblower..

54-year-old Brittan Atkinson was sentenced Thursday, June 10 to a year and a day in jail for sending a threatening email to Mark Zaid in Washington, D.C. in November, 2019. Zaid represented the whistleblower who came forward about President Donald Trump’s call to the Ukrainian Prime Minister.

The email contained language threatening toward Zaid, including “[a]ll traitors must die miserable deaths” and “[t]hose that represent traitors shall meet the same fate[.]” Atkinson told the attorney, “we will hunt you down and bleed you out like the pigs you are.” Atkinson’s threat continued, “[k]eep looking over your shoulder, we know who you are, where you live, and who you associate with, we are all strangers in a crowd to you[.]”

Zaid contacted the FBI after receiving the email, which identified Atkinson as the sender.

Atkinson pleaded guilty last December to making an interstate communication of a threat to injure.