US man arrested with van full of guns plotted to kill Joe Biden, court documents show

Investigators said Alexander Treisman posted a question online on whether Biden received Secret Service protection for life

The teenage loner was arrested in May after Kannapolis police searched his van that included firearms and US$509,000 in cash

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Former US vice-president Joe Biden. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:46pm, 23 Oct 2020Updated: 9:48pm, 23 Oct 2020

Before his arrest in May in Kannapolis, near Charlotte, Alexander Treisman often mused online about violence.

“I was going to do a Columbine for a while,” the 19-year-old from Seattle wrote online in April. “(Now) I think it would be better to put it toward something more memorable.”

What Treisman had in mind was unclear. But federal investigators later found an online post on iFunny in which Treisman posed a question and may have offered a clue:

“Should I kill Joe Biden?”

According to federal documents unsealed on Thursday, less than two weeks before the November 3 presidential election, investigators found evidence on Treisman’s computers and phone that was “consistent with a surveillance and attack plan connected to a possible threat against Joe Biden or other targeted act of violence.”

Treisman, according to court records, told investigators that his violent posts were not real and only part of his online persona. But investigators with the FBI office in Charlotte who tracked Treisman’s credit cards and mobile phone were able to place him at a Wendy’s fast food restaurant only 6km (four miles) from the former vice-president’s Delaware home on May 3.