Breaking news.
Officials say
FBI agents in Utah shot
and killed a man today
while trying to arrest him
for allegedly making death threats
against President Biden.
Our senior crime and justice
correspondent Shimon Prokupecz
is gathering
new information for us right now.
What can you tell us, Shimon?
Yeah, Wolf,
this is really
it was a very serious situation
for the FBI,
the last threat coming just days ago
in preparation
for the president's trip to Utah.
Now, this is an individual
by the name of Craig Roberts,
and he'd been under FBI surveillance
for quite some time.
But finally, after this last thread
where he talked about Biden
coming to Utah,
that he was going to be digging out his
ghillie suit
and cleaning the dust off
his May 24 sniper,
that they finally decided
that they needed
to move in and arrest him.
They went to his home
this morning at 6 a.m.
when they encountered him,
and that is when they shot
and killed him.
I'm told that he was armed
with a handgun at the time.
But this threat was so serious
that certainly for the FBI
this morning,
as the president was getting ready
to go to Utah,
FBI swap
members and agents were suiting up to go
and take him off the street.
Now, this man has made other threats.
According to the FBI,
he made threats against FBI agents
who visited him back in March
after they learned of online postings
that he had previously made.
They went to his home to talk to him.
And just days
after that, in March,
he's posting threats against the FBI.
He also posted other threats,
saying that he was getting ready
for the election
in 20, 24, that he had a guns
and that he was getting ready.
That is a photo from his Facebook page
that the FBI released
of the guns that he had in the house.
And then finally would really started
all this,
Wolf, was that it was a threat made
against the Manhattan district attorney
who has been investigating
former President Donald Trump.
That's what set all this off.
This man claimed
that he was going to come to New York
kill album Bragg, shoot him.
That is the post that was ultimately led
to the FBI opening an investigation
against this man.
They had him under surveillance.
And then finally after this
last threat
just days ago
saying that he was getting ready
for the president's visit
and that he was going to have his gun,
that they decided to move in
and try and arrest him.
And then this happened this morning.
Yeah, very disturbing indeed.
Shimon, I want you to stay with us.
I also want to bring in
CNN senior law enforcement analyst
Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director
of the FBI.
Andrew,
President Biden
is set to land in Utah any minute now.
Just how imminent and serious
was this death threat to him?
Well, Wolf, it was extremely serious
coming from an individual
who was already under investigation
for lodging.
Really kind of disgusting
and serious threats
against other politicians,
other political figures.
You've mentioned
the threat
he made back in March against
prosecutor Alvin Bragg in New York.
That was what initiated
the FBI's investigative interest
when they received a tip
from a social media company
that brought that threat
to their attention.
So this wasn't the normal chatter
that you hear in the run up to an event
that might include a politician
or the president.
This was someone who they were already
very concerned about.
And then he started talking
about acting out
against the president on this trip.
I'm sure that raised everyone's
concern to the absolute highest levels,
as it should.
And what goes through your mind,
Andrew, seeing these very,
very disturbing posts
that they're all included in this
49 page complaint
that that was just issued
by the United States
attorney against this defendant,
Craig Robertson.
What goes through your mind
seeing these disturbing threats,
including one directly threatening
the FBI with a loaded gun
You know, Wolf, it's
it's a remarkable document.
And as you said, it's replete with facts,
multiple threats,
multiple engagements
with law enforcement,
including FBI agents.
I think what really strikes me
is how serious it is
for law enforcement
and for particularly the FBI right now
to be in this realm,
in the social media space,
trying to understand
who actually presents a threat
to our political figures.
And who are folks
that are just kind of talking
or posturing or boasting online.
This is a very, very hard thing to do.
In this case.
You have someone who made
not just one threat in a fit of pique,
but multiple threats
over a period of time,
yet aggressive interactions
with law enforcement.
When they went to his house
to interview him some months ago,
he then threatened to kill them
if they returned.
So this is a guy
who from that entire milieu,
he really rises
to the top of your threat matrix.
As someone who you have to be
most concerned about.
And certainly that's
how this lethal interaction
played out today.
It certainly is.
Tashima And let me get back to you
with a quick question.
How a heightened
is the threat
level right now for this
kind of political extremism?
It's very high, Wolf.
And that's why, you know,
you have the FBI,
you have social media companies
monitoring this
and sort of
letting them know that this is out there.
That's how they learned of this
through the social media company.
We believe Facebook.
That said, we came across this threat.
We were so concerned about it.
We're letting you know about it.
The other thing, really
what's going on in
this is his talk about former President
Donald Trump.
You know,
there's very clear indications
that he was a supporter
of the former president.
In fact,
when the FBI went to visit him to say,
hey, we're on to you,
we know what you're doing,
he was wearing,
they say, a hat with Trump's name on it.
He was also talking about other people
who either investigated it or prosecuted
the former president.
So there's clearly that going on as well
here.
And that is something
that is extremely concerning
for law enforcement.
If you read this complaint
it is very, very disturbing
to see what's going on.
Shimon Prokupecz, Andrew McCabe, guys,
thank you very much.