Attorney General William Tong had state police detectives contact Pastor Jake Dell of the First Congregational Church of Woodbury over a social media post Dell made on X alongside a letter he’d sent to Tong asking the attorney general investigate allegations stemming from a Project Veritas video.

Dell posted his letter to Tong on X that expressed his “profound disappointment and frustration with your office’s response to Senators Martin and Berthel on July 14, 2025,” and Tong’s “dismissal of the Project Veritas allegations due to concerns about their accuracy and past non-cooperation.” 

The letter, however, was posted to X alongside “Silence=Death” and tagging Tong and several media outlets and radio hosts. It was the tweet stating “Silence=Death” that caused the state police to get involved, according to an interview with Dell and a letter he sent to state police detectives explaining his intention that he also posted to X.

In his letter, Dell says the phrase Silence=Death has its roots in the LGBTQ movement, and other human rights advocacy causes, including recently among the Episcopal Bishops of Connecticut “where they condemned silence on issues such as the situation in Gaza and the treatment of immigrants and refugees.”

“My tweet was intended to obliquely refer to such examples of inaction as well (often referred to as subtweeting), highlighting what I perceive as Attorney General Tong’s inaction on serious allegations raised by Project Veritas,” Dell wrote in the August 6 letter.

The Project Veritas investigation showed Rev. Aaron Miller of the Metropolitan Community Church in Hartford, who is transgender, and Tony Ferraiolo, director of the Youth and Family Program at Healthcare Advocates International encouraging an undercover actor posing as 12-year-old girl seeking to transition into a boy to use a chest binder and attend transition support groups without the knowledge or consent of the “child’s” parents. 

In a follow-up video, a Connecticut mother, Elvira Syed alleges Miller’s actions encouraging her daughter Ilene’s transition led to her suicide as a college student. Syed claims that Miller filed a complaint with the Department of Children and Families against her for “not affirming Ilene’s male gender identity.”

“The attorney general directed the state police to ask me to clarify my intent, which I did in that letter,” Dell said in an interview, who said state police detectives were very polite and “pleasant.”

“I was confused at first as to what he was talking about,” Dell continued. “At first, I thought he was following up on the Project Veritas video and I was happy, and then I had to ask him which tweet he was talking about.”

Senators Henri Martin, R-Bristol, and Eric Berthel, R-Watertown, sent a letter to Tong citing the Project Veritas investigation and Pastor Dell’s claim that Miller’s actions represent a violation of the state constitution regarding freedom of religion, but does not excuse churches from “acts of licentiousness, or to justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state.”

“If it’s true that you have ministers in this state telling minor children to disregard their parents or reporting parents, turning them into DCF on baseless charges, or involved in giving out chest binders to minor children, you have basically an open and shut case of a constitutional violation,” Dell said.

“Due to the serious allegations that have been raised about the accuracy and veracity of Project Veritas’s practices, and the past refusal by Project Veritas to respond to requests for information from our office, it is the policy of the Office of the Attorney General not to respond to allegations based solely on Project Veritas reports,” Cara Passaro, chief of staff for the Office of the Attorney General, wrote in a July 14 response to Senators Martin and Berthel. “As always, should someone wish to share information or evidence regarding misconduct that implicates the statutory authority of the Office of the Attorney General, we will review that information and act accordingly.”

Pastor Dell registered his disapproval of the Attorney General’s Office’s response with his letter and the tweet that sparked a complaint to state police and a phone call from detectives. While the complaint was dismissed by police for no criminal violation, this represents the latest incident in which public officials and government employees have sparked police investigations over perceived threats lodged online, sometimes involving well-known phrases.

“It’s frightening,” Dell said. “Your hear about this happening in other countries like Great Britain where people are being arrested for praying silently on a sidewalk or for something they said on social media, so it’s frightening to have it show up on these shores and hit this close to home.”

Guilford resident and former board of education candidate William Maisano was arrested and given two-years of probation for emailing school officials that there would be “hell to pay,” if the school allowed a gym teacher to follow through with dying her hair rainbow for graduation. Despite immediately clarifying that he meant there would be media coverage of his incident, school official pushed for police to arrest him.

Gov. Ned Lamont had activist Kevin Blacker detained and questioned by state police over emails he sent regarding the State Pier project, and, more recently, West Hartford Councilwoman Mary Fay filed a second police report alleging harassment and threatening behavior by a town resident who regularly criticizes state and local politicians on social media, radio, and in-person. The case against Walsh was closed as there was no criminal behavior.

What constitutes a criminal “threat” and what might appear to be or feel threatening to an individual can be two different things, and while the Connecticut legislature has considered in the past bills to limit online harassment against public officials, they were dropped over free speech concerns. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that to constitute a threat, the individual must intend to threaten the recipient of the communication.

Reached for comment, the Attorney General’s Office stated that, “As a general matter, we refer threats made against the Attorney General to State Police,” and directed any questions to them.

This is not Project Veritas’ first foray into Connecticut. In 2022, they released a hidden camera video showing a Cos Cob Elementary School assistant principal saying he would weed out teacher applicants who showed any kind of conservative leanings. The video resulted in an investigation by the Greenwich Public Schools system and reaction from Connecticut politicians, including Gov. Ned Lamont. 

The investigation determined the assistant principal was never in a position to determine which teachers were hired but did result in his resignation. The reaction to the latest videos, however, has been muted, with few public comments or press releases being issued. 

Pastor Dell, however, said both in an interview and in his follow-up letter to the Attorney General that churches will no longer be holding their tongue on political issues and candidates after President Donald Trump’s administration indicated they will exempt churches from the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits charitable organizations from engaging in political campaigns.

“The Johnson Amendment for about sixty years has been a muzzle on the pulpits of this country, making pastors afraid to even hint at the political implications of their preaching, and that’s been dropped by the IRS in the last month,” Dell said. “Ministers should band together – and there are six or seven of us that are working toward this – to say if politicians want our endorsement, now that we’re free to give that endorsement, they’re going to have to show that they actually adhere to some Christian principles.”

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