Trump's Truth Social Tipped Off FBI About 75-Year-Old Man They Later Killed During Raid: Report
A new report says that the Truth Social platform founded by former President Donald Trump informed federal officials about dangerous posts made by a Utah man who was shot to death Wednesday during a confrontation with the FBI.
Craig Deleeuw Robertson, 75, was shot to death at about 6:15 a.m. at his home in Provo, Utah, the FBI said, according to NBC. The incident came hours before Biden arrived in Utah.
According to NBC, Truth Social alerted the FBI in March about Robertson’s posts concerning Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who at that time was investigating Trump in what later emerged as an indictment against Trump for falsifying business records.
WARNING: The following posts contain language that some readers may find disturbing
According to a copy of the complaint posted on Newsweek’s website, a social media post from Robertson on March 18 wrote, “Heading to New York to fulfill my dream of [eradicating] another of George Soros [two-bit political hack] DAs.”
“I’ll be waiting in the courthouse parking garage with my suppressed Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm to smoke a radical fool prosecutor that should never have been elected. I want to stand over Bragg and put a nice hole in his forehead with my 9mm and watch him twitch as a drop of blood oozes from the hole as his life ebbs away to hell!! BYE, BYE, TO ANOTHER CORRUPT BASTARD!!!” the post said.
The complaint said that one day after the post, the FBI National Threat Operations Center told agents of a tip about the post that came from a social media company. The complaint did not identify the company.
The complaint noted multiple threats made by Robertson against President Joe Biden, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Vice President Kamala Harris and multiple others.
On Monday, he had written, “I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghillie suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 Sniper Rifle. Welcome, Buffoon-in-Chief!”
Two days later, the FBI – which had a combative interaction with Robertson earlier in the year over his posts – arrived.
Jon Michael Ossola, a Provo neighbor of Roberson’s said on Wednesday “we started hearing some weird noises, and we went around the corner. That’s when they started just kind of shouting, and there’s like a full SWAT team there,” according to Fox News.
He said the agents identified themselves, but that resolved nothing.
Robertson “started yelling back like, ‘I haven’t broken any federal laws.’ And that kind of went on for a while until like there was a bunch of flash bangs that went off, and there were a lot of loud bangs –obviously some gunshots,” he said.
Since the incident, neighbors have said Robertson seemed harmless.
“There’s no way that he was driving from here to Salt Lake City, setting up a rifle and taking a shot at the president — 100 percent no way,” said neighbor Andrew Maunder said, according to Politico.
Neighbors have said FBI agents yelled “he has a gun” and The Associated Press has cited sources saying Robertson was armed as he faced down the FBI.
Family members have said Robertson was not violent.
“Though his statements were intemperate at times, he has never, and would never, commit any act of violence against another human being over a political or philosophical disagreement,” the family said in a statement, according to the Deseret News.
Robertson was “understandably frustrated and distraught” by “erosions to our constitutionally protected freedoms and the rights of free citizens wrought by what he, and many others in this nation, observed to be a corrupt and overreaching government,” the statement said.
“There was very little he could do but exercise his First Amendment right to free speech and voice his protest in what has become the public square of our age — the internet and social media,” the statement said.
Robertson “was a kind and generous person who was always willing to assist another in need, even when advanced age, limited mobility and other physical challenges made it more difficult and painful for him to do so,” the statement said.
The complaint against Robertson noted that Robertson issued social media postings taunting the FBI.
In March he wrote that “the weaponized FBI is coming after a 75-year-old conservative,” according to the complaint.
“To my friends in Federal Bureau of Idiots: I know you’re reading this and you have no idea how close your agents came to ‘bang,’” a post read, according to the complaint. A similar one said the agent came close to “violent eradication.”
”The FBI tried to interfere with my free speech right in my driveway,” one post read, according to the complaint. “My 45ACP was ready to smoke ‘em.”
“Hey FBI, you still monitoring my social media? Checking so I can be sure to have a loaded gun handy in case you drop by again,” he posted on July 27.
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