Teenager arrested with van full of weapons was plotting to assassinate Biden, Prosecutors say
Police found four rifles, a handgun, explosive materials, and more than $500,000 in cash in a van belonging to Alexander Hillel Treisman, a 19-year-old who was arrested in North Carolina earlier this year, and federal authorities allege that, prior to his arrest, Treisman had begun mapping out a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Treisman was arrested on May 28 after tellers at a bank in Kannapolis, N.C., reported an abandoned van in an adjacent parking lot.
When responding officers arrived, they looked in the vehicle’s windows and saw numerous guns and boxes of ammunition.
According to federal court documents, authorities determined that Treisman had searched online for Biden’s home address and night-vision goggles, and had purchased weapons in at least four states, including buying an AR-15 in New Hampshire.
In May of this year, Treisman drove to a Wendy’s restaurant located within four miles of Biden’s home in Delaware.
According to documents uncovered by the feds, Treisman created a checklist that ended with a note to “execute” Biden.
Treisman was indicted by a federal grand jury in September on child pornography charges, as officials allegedly found 6,721 images and 1,248 videos of child pornography on eight different digital devices.
Federal authorities allege that in October 2019, Treisman created a note on his phone that outlined “a plan to perform a mass shooting at a mall food court on Christmas or Black Friday.”
Investigators also found a document called “A Guide to Mass Shooting” on his hard drive. According to the order, Treisman began to focus on Biden in the spring, after the former Vice President locked up the Democratic nomination.
At one point, he posted a meme with the question, “should I kill Joe Biden?” on the meme-sharing platform iFunny, which, according to the Washington Post, has become a popular hub for white nationalists and far-right propaganda.
Treisman pleaded not guilty to the three counts of child pornography and has not been charged with any crime related to gun possession. He is being held without bail.
Earlier this week, James Dale Reed, a 42-year-old from Frederick, Md., was charged threatening to “severely beat” Joe Biden and rape his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris, before executing both candidates on national TV.
Reed also reportedly threatened that Biden-Harris supporters would be targeted as well.
“We have a list of homes and addresses by your election signs,” Reed wrote in a letter that he dropped on the doorstep of a home that had signs supporting Biden and Harris in their yard.
“We are the ones with those scary guns.”
Big number
$509,000: That’s the total amount of cash that was found in Treisman’s van. The money is believed to be his inheritance.
Source: Forbes
