Remember Vincent McCrudden? He’s the guy who arrested in January after years spent threatening to murder, among others, Mary Schapiro, Richard Ketchum, Gary Gensler and various other SEC and CFTC officials. In one email to a CFTC staffer he wrote, “You fucking corrupt piece of shit! I have let so many of you fucking corrupt mother fuckers off the hook for doing this to my life. You my friend are not getting away with this. I am going to do this my way no and you, you corrupt mother fucking piece of shit are the first on my list! laugh mother fucker…I am going to make you a test case!” In another, vivid imagery involving a midget was used. In yet another, the chief operating officer of the NFA was told “It wasn’t ever a question of ‘if’ I was going to kill you, it was just of when.” For a while, McCrudden also had an "execution" list on his website and encouraged people to help him cross the 47 names off the list, telling them, "Go buy a gun, and let’s get to work in taking back our country from these criminals. I will be the first one to lead by example."

Vincent is set to be tried next week and his attorney has come up with a two part defense: 1) everyone wants to see US financial regulators dead. 2) McCrudden wasn't threatening so much as he was dialoguing about the flaws in the regulatory system.

McCrudden wants “to introduce evidence that there is an ardent and vocal community of people within the financial world who believe (rightly or wrongly) that these organizations are corrupt and/or inept,” his lawyer wrote in a court filing this month...McCrudden’s lawyer, Bruce A. Barket, said in a filing the information would put his client’s comments “in the context of an ongoing public discussion about the honesty and efficacy of the financial regulatory system” to determine whether they were true threats or political opinion.

Pretty simple, really. Not sure why anyone interpreted "You corrupt mother fucking piece of shit are the first on my list! I am going to make you a test case" as an actual threat. Anyway, if everyone who's thought similarly about not wanting to let "so many of [these] fucking corrupt mother fuckers off the hook" could come forward at this time, that'd be a big help.

Former Fund Manager Wants to Show Shared Hatred of Regulators at Trial [Bloomberg]