New charges related to threats against FBI are unsealed against Pennsylvania man
Aug 15, 2022, 2:22 PM
FILE: A car passes in front of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on February 11, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. Published reports indicate that possible classified material was among documents recovered by the National Archives in January from the Mar-a-Lago home. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(CNN) — The Justice Department unsealed charges on Monday against a Pennsylvania man who allegedly threatened to kill FBI agents after investigators searched Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida.
Investigators said that Adam Bies of Mercer, Pennsylvania, has been threatening federal agents on the social media site Gab for months. Agents weren’t alerted to Bies’ posts until after the search at Mar-a-Lago.
According to court documents, Bies, who posted under the username “BlankFocus,” repeatedly threatened to kill FBI agents. In a series of posts on August 11 — three days after the search — Bies allegedly wrote that he was willing to die in order to harm as many FBI agents as possible.
“I sincerely believe that if you work for the FBI, then you deserve to DIE,” Bies wrote in one post, according to court documents. In another, he allegedly wrote: “My only goal is to kill more of them before I drop. I will not spend one second of my life in their custody.”
Bies also railed against the CEO of Gab after apparently receiving a warning about his posts, according to court documents, and against FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has denounced threats against agents.
“Hey a**hole. Why don’t you send them my threats so that they’d at least have something credible to show on Fox News,” Bies allegedly wrote, adding that other posts highlighted in a local Fox article targeting the FBI were “nowhere near ‘threats.'”
Bies has been charged with influencing, impeding, or retaliating against federal law enforcement officers, according to court documents. He has not yet entered a plea, and there is no indication in court records that Bies acted on the threats.
A lawyer of Bies is not yet listed on the docket.
The FBI is investigating an “unprecedented” number of threats against bureau personnel in the aftermath of the search at Mar-a-Lago, a law enforcement source told CNN last week. The bureau, along with the Department of Homeland Security, issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning of “violent threats” against federal law enforcement, courts and government personnel and facilities.
In a separate incident last week, a Columbus man suspected of trying to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati field office armed with an AR-15 and a nail gun was killed after a vehicle chase and hours-long standoff with law enforcement. A social media account bearing the man’s name called also for violence against the FBI in the aftermath of the search.
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