Court Upholds Conviction for Threatening Attack on the FBI
From Friday’s U.S. v. Miah, decided by Judge Felipe Restrepo, joined by Chief Judge Michael Chagares and Judge Arianna Freeman:
In September 2020, FBI Special Agent Nick Edquist and an officer from the Joint Terrorism Task force went to Miah’s apartment to interview him about his comments on several social media platforms. Miah’s comments drew the FBI’s attention because they suggested he believed in a “particular extremist ideology,” consisting of a “vengeful, violent form of Islam.” {Agent Edquist testified at trial that the tweets included incendiary language encouraging violence against Christian-majority countries, an “explicit call to attack Jews,” and the glorification of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The FBI’s physical surveillance revealed that Miah frequently went alone to the local shooting range.} Miah was not cooperative during the initial interview and in fact filed a complaint against the FBI. He agreed to another interview the following day but was again uncooperative, refusing to answer the agents’ questions about his online conduct.
On October 8, 2020, Miah created a Twitter account named after Agent Edquist’s wife that contained pictures of her and her personal information, including her approximate age, place of employment, education, and religion. The next day agents executed a warrant to search Miah’s home and devices. {The search of the devices revealed that Miah had gone to gun stores to research different types of weapons, “specifically weapons that had suppressors on the gun and things like that.” The devices contained photographs of assault rifles and Miah dressed in a manner that appeared to the agents as emulating ISIS fighters. They also contained multiple pictures of the Tsarnaev brothers, who committed the 2013 Boston Marathon terrorist attack.}
Miah admitted to creating the tweets but claimed they were a joke and that he would not post such content again. He instead immediately resumed creating tweets featuring Agent Edquist and his wife, as
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