A man accused of threatening U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, his family and an unnamed Oregon state official in phone calls and emails appeared in federal court in Portland Monday afternoon.

Nathaniel Blaine Luffman, 32, was arrested in Berkeley, California, earlier this month and transferred to Oregon to face a four-count federal indictment.

A U.S. Capitol Police investigation found Luffman sent an email about 7:49 a.m. on June 25 to several Oregon state employees and a U.S. Capitol police special agent with a subject line identifying two people as "Found Dead Execution/Suicide,'' according to a criminal complaint.

Nathaniel B. Luffman

In the email, Luffman is accused of threatening to "gut'' Paul like a hog, as well as his wife and children, and included the hashtag #ObamaforLife.

The same morning as the email, Luffman is accused of leaving a threatening voicemail at the office of an Oregon state official in the Portland federal building, introducing himself as Sen. Nathaniel Luffman and threatening to "hack to pieces'' Paul's daughters, according to court records.

"You're trying to hurt papa Obama, boy? Alright. You wanna go to war? Let's play war, boy. Let's play war. Hoo-rah, '' he said in the voicemail, according to court records.

Luffman, previously of Kentucky, was indicted on charges of threatening a federal official, threatening the family of a federal official and two counts of interstate communication.

Hours after Luffman's arrest in California became public in federal court records, Paul issued a message on Twitter, "Thank you to the US Capitol Police for their arrest of the man who recently threatened to kill my family and me.''

Luffman's email address has been associated since 2017 with other threatening communications to members of Congress, according to the complaint. Luffman was interviewed in Portland in February by threat assessment officers with the U.S. Capitol Police, according to the complaint. He had been living in Portland before his arrest in California.

In court Monday, Luffman said he didn't need a lawyer, that "Luffman" wasn't his real name and he claimed he's been in a federal witness protection program.

Luffman also claimed that the U.S. Capitol police had no authority to arrest him, contending that the University of California at Berkeley is a "sovereign nation'' that would require his extradition before arrest.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta told Luffman that the university, in fact, is a part of the state of California and isn't a sovereign entity. He appointed an assistant federal public defender to represent Luffman and scheduled his arraignment for July 31.

Acosta also ordered Luffman to remain in custody, citing the serious nature of the alleged offenses, the defendant's mental health issues, multiple false identities and aliases and his moving from state to state.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian