Fresno State professor under fire for reportedly tweeting 'Trump must hang'

A Fresno State professor is under federal investigation for reportedly tweeting that "Trump must hang."

Breitbart reported on Lars Maischak's tweets about a week ago, quoting one of his posts from February as saying, "To save American democracy, Trump must hang. The sooner and the higher, the better. #TheResistance #DeathToFascism."

According to the media outlet, Maischak had reportedly included a link to another person's tweet which compared Trump to Hitler, Lenin, and others.

The right-wing site featured other controversial tweets from the history professor, including one from March 8 where he reportedly wrote, "Don't tell me to 'obey the Law.' 'The Law' in this country is one part Racism, one part Class Oppression, all Capitalism. #TheResistance."

Maischak has said he has received serious backlash in the form of hate mail and even death threats after the Breitbart story emerged.

According to the Fresno Bee, he has since issued an apology and clarified his position, saying, in part, "It was never my intent to harm anyone, nor to encourage others to harm anyone. My statements each represent the end point of a dark train of thought triggered by my despair over the actions of the present U.S. government."

Maischak later added, "With 28 followers on Twitter at the time, I never expected them to be read by anyone but a close circle of acquaintances who would know to place them in their context."

He has since deleted his Twitter account, according to him, "to preclude the possibility that anyone reading my statements in the future would take them as encouragement to act violently or unlawfully."

The Los Angeles Times reports that the professor is fully cooperating in a federal investigation into his posts.