Anna Paulina Luna’s Former Political Opponent Charged With Hiring Hit Squad

Politics has always been a dirty business. As far back as the fall of the Roman Republic, Mark Antony replied to Marcus Tullius Cicero’s “Philippics” speeches, in which Cicero called Antony every Latin name in the book, by sending soldiers to kill Cicero. When the soldiers arrived at Cicero’s estate, he accepted his fate; the Roman historian Aufidius Bassus tells us Cicero told them:

Ego vero consisto. Accede, veterane, et, si hoc saltim potes recte facere, incide cervicem. (I go no further: approach, veteran soldier, and, if you can at least do so much properly, sever this neck.)

Neck was severed, and Cicero’s head and hands, at Antony’s order ended up nailed to the Rostra in the Forum, pour encourager les autres.

Politics today isn’t quite so openly brutal – usually. But on Sunday, we learned that a former political opponent of Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Republican challenger William Braddock, is facing charges for allegedly trying to hire a hit squad.

A former congressional candidate was charged over allegations that he threatened to dispatch a hit squad to murder his political opponent while he was running against Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.)

William Braddock, 41, of St. Petersburg, Fla. is accused of making the alleged threats on June 8, 2021 — including one where he threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” to take out his rival.

Prosecutors did not outright name the victim, but at the time, he was vying against fellow Republican Luna and he was allegedly caught on audio calling the lawmaker a “dead squirrel” and “a f—ing speed bump in the road.”

Read the full story here.