A man from rural Mercer County with 13 guns and a hatred for the government is set to admit to threatening to kill FBI agents in the wake of the bureau’s 2022 search of Donald Trump’s Florida estate for missing classified papers that are the subject of an ongoing investigation.
Adam Bies, who lives near Springfield Falls, indicated Monday that he will plead guilty in federal court on June 8 in connection with death threats he is accused of making on the social media platform Gab.
Bies, 47, is charged with 14 counts of interstate threats and retaliation against federal officers by way of threats.
Bies, a self-described “adventure photographer,” did more than rant on Gab.
When FBI and state police SWAT teams showed up at his house last August, he emerged with an assault-style M4 rifle in his hands. The FBI told him to drop it, and he did, avoiding a firefight and his almost certain death. Inside the house, he had 12 other guns and a compound bow. He had threatened online to use the bow against the FBI.
Bies was angry that agents had raided Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 in search of classified documents taken from the White House when Trump left office.
He wasn’t alone in his rage. An agitated Navy veteran in Ohio tried to breach the Cincinnati FBI office. Police killed him.
Bies is accused of making a series of online threats over three days after the Florida raid and sending texts to his girlfriend on the day of his arrest saying he wanted to kill FBI and IRS agents or die trying.
On the day after the search, he said, “Is it time for civil war yet? Seriously, how much longer before we finally do what needs to be done?”
In another posting, he said, “Come and get me you piece of shit feds. I can’t wait to watch you bleed out you pedophile scumbags. Every single one of you deserve a painful death.”
The FBI said Bies compared the bureau to the Nazi SS and the Soviet KGB, saying everyone at the FBI — including janitors — should be killed.
“My only goal is to kill more of them before I drop,” he said, according to prosecutors. “I will not spend one second of my life in their custody.”
He did, though. A magistrate judge ordered him locked up as an obvious danger, and he’s been in jail ever since.
The case began when the FBI’s national threat team got a tip from a domestic terror-tracking group that someone called “BlankFocus” was making threats on Gab.
After an emergency request for information, Gab gave up subscriber data for an “Adam Campbell.” Bies used that name as an alias, he said, so that “corporate Murica’ can’t google me out of a job.”
The FBI tracked his IP address to rural Falls Road.
A review of his Gab chats turned up all manner of vile comments directed at the FBI and also the CEO of Gab for banning people making threats.
Bies had been active online before the Trump search, ranting against COVID-19 vaccines, loss of U.S. jobs to foreigners and his general hatred for liberals.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
