Adam Ray Mouser (center) threatened Jill Biden, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and law enforcement in a series of violent posts online, authorities said. (Image of the Bidens: AP Photo/Will Weissert; mug shot of Mouser: Sangamon County Detention Facility; image of Obama: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File; image of Clinton: Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
An Illinois man threatened prominent Democrats and law enforcement online, and when investigators showed up at his door, he doubled down on those threats and anticipated retaliation, according to a federal complaint.
The defendant, Adam Ray Mouser, 39, is charged with threats against the president for his alleged statements about Joe Biden. He also faces a count of threats against former presidents and certain other persons protected by the United States Secret Service for threatening former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton, and current First Lady Jill Biden. There is also a count of interstate communications with threat to injure.
The Secret Service claim they learned on Aug. 10 about Moser writing on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, that he wanted to “murder” President Biden with “my bare fucking hands” to shoot his “piece of shit wife” Jill Biden, and a Biden son, who Mouser did not name. The president’s son, Hunter Biden, is a bugbear among some conservatives.
Mouser allegedly followed up on Aug. 11, saying the “sad pathetic pigs won’t shoot me” for threatening the president and the Biden family because he’ll shoot back to kill them and track down their children “and murder them too.”
About a post in which another person asked readers if they would prefer to eat with Obama or Clinton, Mouser, on Aug. 9, allegedly suggested he would shoot them both under the chin.
One of Mouser’s alleged posts said that officials “murdered” a man for threatening Biden. Another post discussed a “Utah man.” This is an apparent reference to Craig Robertson, 75, who allegedly threatened Biden. FBI agents said they killed Robertson at his home in Provo, Utah after he pointed a handgun at them when they tried to arrest him.
“I’m headed to get pictures of me with my gear on so the feds can see I’m better armed than the Utah man,” Mouser allegedly wrote on Aug. 11. “I guess you gotta dress up for the occasion to slaughter useless government pieces of s—. I’m excited are you excited.”
Investigators tracked down Mouser to his home in Jacksonville, Illinois, west of the state capital of Springfield.
A Secret Service agent and a local police detective arrived at his home on Aug. 23, documents stated. According to the affidavit, they knocked on the door. Mouser opened and “appeared very hostile,” authorities said.
“Yeah, I posted it,” he allegedly told them.
He said that he meant it and stood behind the posts, authorities said.
“Mouser stated that he had First Amendment rights and that we were trying to silence him,” the Secret Service affiant wrote.
Under case law, the First Amendment does not protect “true threats.”
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Mouser wrote about the investigators after they left, according to documents.
In one post, Mouser allegedly wrote he was alive but that “I won’t go quietly.”
In another, he asserted authorities would return to his home at night to kill his family in their sleep.
“The Fed protects pedophiles and scum,” he allegedly wrote. “Hope u stay alive longer than I did.”
Mouser remains at the Sangamon County Detention Facility as of Friday morning, records show. His attorney did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.
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