Mercer man pleads guilty to threatening FBI

Jun. 20—PITTSBURGH — A Mercer County man pleaded guilty last week in federal court to charges stemming from threats against FBI officials after the agency's raid on former President Donald Trump's Florida residence to collect government documents.

Adam Bies, 47, of Mercer, pleaded guilty Thursday before United States Federal District Judge William S. Stickman IV to 14 counts of interstate threats and influencing or retaliating against a federal officer by threat. On the same day, federal authorities indicted Trump on charges stemming from the documents FBI agents found when they served a warrant at the former president's Mar-A-Lago residence Aug. 8.

Federal prosecutors from the Western District of Pennsylvania accused Bies of threatening to kill or injure FBI agents after receiving a tip that a man named "Adam Kenneth Campbell," later identified as Bies, posted threats on his Gab social media account.

'I'll shoot an SS officer in the head just as quick as I'd shoot a KGB officer in the head. Keep that in mind. There are plenty of other letters in the alphabet. Police state scum are police state scum. Period," Bies wrote on Gab, according to a criminal complaint filed Aug. 15.

In other posts, Bies referred to federal agents as "scumbags" and said "HEY FEDS, We the people cannot WAIT to water the trees of liberty with your blood. I'll be waiting for you to kick down my door," as quoted in the federal criminal complaint.

The U.S. attorney's office said Bies is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 4. At that time, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. His actual sentence would depend upon the severity of the offense and criminal history, if any.