CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Federal authorities arrested a 72-year-old Cape Coral man and charged him with making violent threats against ICE agents online. On Saturday, Joseph Giancola spoke exclusively with FOX 4.
WATCH: Cape Coral man charged with violent threats speaks with FOX 4:
Federal agents arrested Giancola at his daughter's Cape Coral home on Thursday. He's charged with threatening federal law enforcement in online posts.
WATCH: Federal agents raid Cape Coral home, arrest man on threat charges
According to authorities, Giancola engaged in a months-long pattern of threats against ICE officials using the online pseudonym "Cain Delon" on the social media website, Bluesky.
The department said the threats included comparing ICE officials to Nazis and calling for violence against federal agents.
FOX 4 reviewed court documents that detailed some of Giancola's posts. The Department of Homeland Security said he posted "start shooting the ice gestapo dead," "I would shoot them dead. Gestapo Lives Don't Matter," and "Gestapo police must die."
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Gestapo was the political police force of the Nazi state, which translate to "Secret State Police" in English.
Giancola's daughter, Anna Giancola, said the posts don't represent who her father really is.
"I was very surprised to read those posts. That's not my Dad," Anna Giancola said. "We don't condone any violence in this house...we don't condone acts of violence, words of violence. That's not how we are."
READ: Feds: Cape Coral man said to 'just get a gun and shoot the ICE Nazis down'
She said if people got a chance to meet her father, they would know he's not a violent person. Anna said her Dad is a good father and a hard worker.
As FOX 4 interviewed Anna, her father unexpectedly appeared in Anna's home with groceries. He's out on bond and said a judge ordered him not to speak about details of the case. Giancola said he did not want to violate the court's order. FOX 4 asked him how it felt to be home.
"It hurts me that [my family] had to feel the effects of my behavior because it was never to harm my family, or never to involve my family," Giancola said. "We have a lot of healing to do, and I want to help them with that."
Giancola said the court treated him with respect. The 72-year-old wears hearing aides and struggled to hear the judge during his court appearance. Giancola said the judge stepped off the bench and spoke with him directly.
“He wanted to make sure I heard every word he said," Giancola said. "Very humbled by that."
Giancola said he previously taught nursing school and worked as an attorney in Ohio. Giancola said he was a law clerk for the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in Cleveland.
He said he helps take care of Anna's children and essentially lives rent-free in the home. Anna and her wife, a former U.S. Air Force major, have four children between the ages of 1 and 17.
"Making comments like 'Shoot the ICE Nazis dead… Shoot ICE gestapo dead… Get your gun and shoot them dead' is not free speech, it's simply dangerous," HSI Tampa acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Cochran said. "While the First Amendment protects free speech, it does not extend to threats of violence or actions that incite harm. Freedom of speech carries a responsibility to exercise it in a manner that respects the safety and rights of others."
Anna Giancola said the family doesn't want to be categorized as violent people.
"We go to work, pay bills, pay taxes, we own our own home. We have beautiful children," Anna said. "We just seem to be made like bad guys and we had no idea what was going on."
"Making comments like 'Shoot the ICE Nazis dead… Shoot ICE gestapo dead… Get your gun and shoot them dead' is not free speech, it's simply dangerous," HSI Tampa acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Cochran said in a press release, that has since been taken down. "While the First Amendment protects free speech, it does not extend to threats of violence or actions that incite harm. Freedom of speech carries a responsibility to exercise it in a manner that respects the safety and rights of others."
FOX 4 reviewed court documents that reveal Giancola's conversation with federal agents after his arrest.
According to court documents, Giancola said the Bluesky account that made the posts was his and he's the only one that posts from it using his iPhone.
When agents showed Giancola screenshots of the posts, Giancola said they were his.
The court documents said they asked Giancola if he remembers talking to the Secret Service in 2018 regarding "similar conduct."
He told agents he was no physical threat to anyone and added, "I have very right to vent my anger online," the documents said.
"During the interview, when asked if he had wished harm on federal law enforcement, Giancola told SA (Special Agent) Chabot that he would not care if someone shot SA Chabot right then because he considered SA Chabot a “traitor,"" the report said. “I mean, if someone would shoot an ICE agent and kill him, you personally, for example, no, I would not feel sorry at all because I consider you a traitor and a Nazi. And we killed Nazis in World War II.”
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