An Alabama man pleaded guilty Friday to sending threatening messages to an Arizona Board of Elections employee in Maricopa County during the 2022 Arizona primary election.

Brian Jerry Ogstad, 60, admitted to sending multiple threatening messages on social media, including explicit threats of violence and execution against election workers. Ogstad faces up to five years in prison on each charge and is scheduled to be sentenced on October 21 in Phoenix.

A message seeking comment was left Friday with Ogstad's lawyer.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the safety of public servants is essential to a functioning democracy and that the Department of Justice has zero tolerance for threats or violence against public servants.

“We will never tolerate these heinous criminal acts and the danger they pose to our safety and our democratic process. The Department of Justice will respond with the full force of threats and acts of violence targeted at public servants,” Garland said in a statement.

In a partially redacted indictment, U.S. and Arizona attorneys said that between about Aug. 2, 2022 and Aug. 4, 2022, Ogstad made death threats against county election officials via social media accounts controlled by Maricopa County.

“YOU HAVE BEEN FUCKED! YOU ARE FUCKING FUCKING DIE. YOU ALL DESERVE THE DEATH PERSON FOR YOUR CRIME,” he wrote in an Instagram direct message, according to the indictment.

Ogstad repeated his threats over the next few days, repeatedly saying he would “execute all of you.”

A former professor of economics, currently Describe yourself as an entrepreneur Ogstad, a speaker focusing on freedom, philosophy, economics and society It was featured in a 2021 CNN report on QAnon.A right-wing conspiracy theory which claims that world affairs are controlled by a global conspiracy of devil-worshipping, left-wing pedophiles.

Ogstad reportedly told CNN's Anderson Cooper that he didn't consider himself a QAnon “follower,” even though he frequently used QAnon slogans and online hashtags. CNN reported that Ogstad appeared to believe most of QAnon's core conspiracy theories, including calling for the public execution of prominent Democratic figures.

Gary Restaino, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, said the guilty plea “sends a message to anyone who seeks to take the rule of law into their own hands through lynching.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray also said violent threats against election workers are a threat to democracy and the democratic process.

“Threats of violence against public officials cannot be allowed to become normalized. The FBI takes all threats of violence against public officials seriously and will continue to pursue threats and acts of violence targeted at election workers,” he said in a press release.

This case is part of the Department of Justice's Election Intimidation Task Force, established by Attorney General Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in June 2021. The Task Force is responsible for addressing threats of violence against election workers and ensuring they can do their jobs without intimidation. The Task Force works with election officials and law enforcement to investigate and prosecute threats against election workers.

Jim Small contributed to this report.