Craig Robertson's Facebook Posts Before Being Fatally Shot in FBI Raid

An armed man who was shot and killed by FBI agents on Wednesday had posted numerous threats against President Joe Biden and others on social media, according to court documents.

The FBI said special agents had been trying to serve a warrant at Craig Deleeuw Robertson's home in Provo, Utah, when the shooting happened at about 6:15 a.m., The Associated Press reported.

Robertson was armed at the time of the shooting, according to two law enforcement sources who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity as the investigation is ongoing.

Court documents show Robertson had been charged under seal on Tuesday with three felony counts, including making threats against the president and against FBI agents investigating him.

He was shot dead hours before Biden flew to Utah on Wednesday, ahead of a visit to a Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake City on Thursday to talk about the PACT Act, which expanded veterans' benefits.

According to court documents reviewed by Newsweek, Robertson posted on Facebook earlier this week that he was planning to clean "the dust off the M24 sniper rifle" after hearing that Biden was coming to Utah.

"Digging out my old ghillie suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle," Robertson wrote in the post, according to the criminal complaint.

Robertson "knowingly and willfully made a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon" Biden, an FBI special agent wrote in the complaint.

The agent wrote that Robertson's posts indicated he appeared to own numerous firearms, including a long-range sniper rifle, as well as camouflage gear known as a "ghillie suit."

In another recent post shared on X, formerly Twitter, by journalist Aric Toler, Robertson allegedly wrote: "Perhaps Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist."

Robertson called himself a "MAGA Trumper" in at least one post, a reference to former President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. He was a registered Republican, according to records obtained by Newsweek.

Court documents say he referenced a "presidential assassination" and made threats to Vice President Kamala Harris and law enforcement officials overseeing court cases against Trump, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!" he wrote in a Facebook post on September 19, 2022.

The FBI's investigation into Robertson began with a tip about the threat against Bragg from Trump's Truth Social platform in March, according to the court documents.

Robertson posted that he would be "waiting in the courthouse parking garage" with a suppressed weapon and wanting to "put a nice hole in his forehead." His account was later suspended from Truth Social.

Two FBI agents went to Robertson's house in Provo on March 19 after the warning about him from Truth Social and found him wearing a Trump hat and an "AR-15 style rifle lapel pin," one of the FBI agents wrote in an affidavit.

The affidavit said Robertson told them his threat toward Bragg was just "a dream."

"We're done here! Don't return without a warrant!" Robertson told the agents, according to the affidavit.

Five days later, Robertson posted on Facebook: "To my friends in the Federal Bureau of Idiots: I know you're reading this and you have no idea how close your agents came to 'violent eradication.'"

In another social media post cited in the document, Robertson wrote: "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."

"The FBI is reviewing an agent-involved shooting which occurred around 6:15 a.m. on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 in Provo, Utah," the FBI said in a statement to Newsweek.

"The incident began when special agents attempted to serve arrest and search warrants at a residence. The subject is deceased."

The statement added that the FBI "takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously. In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI's Inspection Division."

Newsweek has contacted the FBI and the White House for comment via email.