A Queens Proud Boys supporter arrested in January for making online threats against Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock was all set to attend the Capitol riot with other Trump supporters — but couldn’t get a ride down to D.C., prosecutors said Thursday.
Eduard Florea’s wife, Joni Florea, told prosecutors that her husband was in a “frenzy” to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6., and even got dressed in a tactical vest and armed himself with combat knives.
“Ultimately, the defendant was unable to get a ride and thus did not travel to the Capitol on January 6,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro in court papers opposing bail for Florea.
The Middle Village man surrendered to the feds on Jan. 12 in a caught-on-camera raid, with authorities seizing about 1,000 rounds of rifle ammunition, 24 shotgun shells, 75 combat knives, two hatchets and two swords from his home.
“Dead men can’t write s–t laws,” read one of Florea’s Jan. 6 posts on the Parler app. Authorities said the menacing remark was directed at Warnock, a Democrat who was elected in Georgia’s Jan. 5 Senate runoff election.
On Tuesday, Florea, 40, requested that he be released on $100,000 bail so he could live with his mother. The application noted he’d be 13.3 miles away from the Queens apartment he shared with his wife, his defense attorney said.
The bail request prompted prosecutors to share Florea’s sordid history of domestic violence, including a recent incident where allegedly he choked his wife for refusing to use their joint business account to raise money for the Proud Boys.
“As a result of her refusal to support the Proud Boys, the defendant choked his wife, took out one of his combat knives and stated, in sum and substance, ‘What makes you think I won’t f—ing kill you?'” Navarro wrote.
The couple’s kids, an 8- and 4-year-old, walked into the room while Florea was attacking his wife. He also regularly pointed firearms at his wife and threatened her with knives, said the feds.
Prosecutors also mentioned an assault from 2014 that Joni Florea recorded on camera.
“The defendant’s wife can be heard screaming and crying in physical pain in various portions of the recording,” Navarro wrote, adding that the clip shows Eduard Florea calling his wife a “whore” and a “c–t.”
Adding salt to the wound, the feds noted that Florea “frequently abused” the family dog, at one point slicing the pooch’s back with a knife after it nipped his finger.
Joni Florea did not respond to calls requesting comment.
A judge did not immediately rule on Eduard Florea’s plea for bail.
