This photo illustration shows an image of former President Donald Trump next to a phone screen that is displaying the Truth Social app, in Washington, DC, on February 21, 2022.
Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
The social media company owned by former President Donald Trump in March tipped off the FBI about threats made by a Utah man who was fatally shot Wednesday by FBI agents as they attempted to arrest him for threatening to kill President Joe Biden, NBC News reported.
Truth Social notified the FBI after Craig Deleeuw Robertson posted a threat to kill Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr., according to a senior law enforcement official who spoke to NBC.
Bragg is prosecuting Trump for allegedly falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Robertson, 75, was armed when FBI agents confronted him at his home in Provo on Wednesday morning and pointed his weapon at agents and did not respond to their commands before they fatally shot him, a senior official told NBC.
Agents were there to arrest him on a federal criminal complaint accusing him of making death threats against Biden, Bragg and FBI agents.
Robertson was killed hours before Biden arrived in Utah for a visit.
In a social media post on Sunday, Robertson wrote, “I heard Biden is coming to Utah.” He added that he was dusting off his “M24 Sniper Rifle.”
Robertson was described by the FBI in that complaint as a white man “approximately 70-75 years old” who was surveilled “wearing a dark suit (later observed as having an AR-15 style rifle lapel pin attached), a white shirt, a red tie, and a multi-colored (possibly camouflage) hat bearing the word ‘TRUMP’ on the front.”
His death is under investigation by the FBI’s Inspection Division.
The complaint says that on March 19 an FBI agent received a notification from the FBI National Threat Operations Center regarding a threat to kill Bragg. The tip to the operations center came from a social media company, according to the complaint.
The threat was made by user @winston4eagles, according to the complaint, which did not identify the site by name.
Two FBI agents, later that day, went to Robertson’s home and saw him get into a car and drive to a church where he spent several hours, the complaint said.
When the agents followed him back to his home and asked him about the comment on Truth Social, Robertson told them, “I said it was a dream … We’re done here! Don’t return without a warrant,” according to the complaint.
During a subsequent investigation, the FBI learned that Robertson, who owned numerous firearms, had made “multiple threats” toward government officials, among them Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The New York attorney general is suing Trump and his real estate company for alleged widespread fraud.
Trump Media & Technology Group started Truth Social in late 2021, months after the former president was banned from Twitter on Jan. 8, 2021.
Twitter, now known as X, made the decision because it feared Trump might incite further violence on the heels of the Capitol riot by a mob of his supporters two days earlier.