A Waterville man has been arrested for posting online threats about preparing for a civil war, wanting to kill immigrants, President Biden, Barack Obama and others.
Benjamin Brown, 45, was arrested on Monday and made his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Tuesday, the Waterville Morning Sentinel reported.
Brown was charged with threatening interstate communications.
In an affidavit filed with the court, Jonathan Duquette, an FBI task force officer and border patrol agent, said the FBI was first contacted by Google’s Cyber Crime Investigation Group in March 2021 about a user named “push een,” who had posted comments on YouTube threatening to kill Democratic politicians and others. Google also provided the FBI with the address and email associated with the account, which belonged to Brown.
Brown’s comments on YouTube included, among other things, that he hoped someone would shoot Sen. Susan Collins, that he had “thought an awful lot about killing Joe Biden!!” and that he couldn’t wait for a revolution so “we” can burn Washington D.C. to the ground, “Drag Joe Biden out of the White House and beat him to death on his own front lawn!!!”
An FBI agent interviewed Brown at his residence in Waterville during which Brown said he gets frustrated with current events and makes exaggerated, hyperbolic posts but did not wish harm on anyone he had named, according to the affidavit.
The FBI closed the investigation after referring it to the U.S. Secret Service.
In April 2023, Google contacted the FBI again about Brown, who was registered with the email [email protected] and had posted threats to kill George Soros and violent threats against members of the LGBTQ+ community, Mexican politicians and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Among the threats quoted in the affidavit was one in which Brown challenged the FBI directly:
“HEY FBI, SORRY TO BE THE BEARER OF BAD NEWS BUT THERE IS NOTHING THAT YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DO TO STOP THE REVOLUTION BECAUSE WE ARE TOO MANY AND WE ARE TOO POWERFUL WE WILL OVERTHROW YOU WE WILL OVERTHROW THE CIA WE WILL OVERTHROW EVERY POLICE OFFICER IN THIS COUNTRY WHO CHOOSES TO FIGHT ON YOUR SIDE WE WILL OVERTHROW EVERY SINGLE MILITARY MEMBER WHO CHOOSES TO FIGHT ON YOUR SIDE WE OUTNUMBER YOU WE OUTGUN YOU AND YOU WILL NOT WIN!!”
The FBI agent returned to Brown’s Waterville residence and spoke to a man they believed was Brown, who claimed he was exercising his free speech and had not meant to be threatening.
Additionally, the man said he uses Google voice-to-text, and that it does not always accurately transcribe what he says. The agent said he warned Brown that not all his statements online constitute free speech and advised him to read the definitions of Interstate Threatening Communications.
Again the FBI closed the case.
On Feb. 20, Google contacted the FBI again about a user whose account information was linked to Brown. The user had “made threats towards immigrants and other elected officials and was stockpiling weapons in preparation for a violent civil war in the United States,” according to the affidavit.
Where Brown’s previous display name had been “John Doe” it was now “JOEBIDEN IS A PEDOPHILE.”
In comments transcribed in the affidavit, Brown talks about, among other things, wanting to hunt immigrants and kill them. He alleges that charges against Donald Trump are the result of corrupt judges and a corrupt country. He says he’s stockpiling weapons and ammo for a civil war and dares the police and the FBI to stop him.
At Brown’s residence, FBI agents interviewed a man they believed to be Brown who repeated the claims that he was not making threats and is not a violent person. The man said he didn’t own a gun and would only defend himself if he was threatened.
On March 6, the FBI obtained a search warrant for Brown’s residence seeking to seize computers, hard drives and other computer-related materials, firearms and explosives, according to the warrant, which appears in court documents.
The court records do not indicate whether the FBI had yet searched Brown’s residence.
