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The Utah man shot dead by FBI agents Wednesday morning after making online assassination threats to President Biden and other top Democrats was a staunch Donald Trump supporter, Air Force veteran, Second Amendment advocate and twice-widowed father of three adult children.
Craig Deleeuw Robertson, 75, was reportedly armed when federal agents arrived at his doorstep around 6:15 a.m. to serve both an arrest and search warrant of his home in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, just hours before Biden was to arrive in the state.
Robertson was facing counts of interstate threats, a threat against the president and influencing, impeding and retaliating against federal law enforcement officers by threat before he was killed.
The registered Republican and self-proclaimed “MAGA Trumper” wrote online Sunday that he heard Biden was coming to Utah so he was digging out his camouflage hunting suit and “cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle.”
Robertson had a collection of firearms that he frequently showed off in photos posted to his social media profiles, where he described himself as an “Air Force Vietnam Era vet, retired welding inspector, gunsmith and woodworker. NRA Life Member, 2A advocate and owner of many AR rifles + many other rifles, shotguns, and handguns.”
“As Patrick Henry said, so shall I: ‘GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH.’,” the veteran added.
Robertson’s profile photo on Facebook was an image of him wearing a helmet, goggles and face cover as he pointed a gun with its green laser sight on. Another picture showed him holding up a large rifle while another featured all his guns lined up.
He had a collection of at least 20 guns, according to Travis Lee Clark, a community member who knew Robertson from working at their local church ward together — but added that that wasn’t out of the ordinary for the area.
Clark said Robertson was an “established icon” in their neighborhood and was often outspoken about his political views.
“He was a boomer, and he was very political and sometimes made off-color jokes … but nothing that indicated it was a threat,” he said, adding that he was “frail of health.”
On Facebook, Robertson’s political posts often described violence he wanted to inflict on Democrats, including Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and prosecutors working on cases against Trump.
“The time is right for a presidential assassination or two,” Robertson reportedly wrote in a September 2022 Facebook post. “First Joe then Kamala!!!”
He also threatened Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, US Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who are all overseeing cases against Trump.
“I dreamed I was in a dark corner of a Washington DC parking garage, I was standing over the body of the US Attorney General Merrick Garland with a bullet hole dead center in his forehead,” Roberston wrote in all caps in a chilling February post. “In my hand was my suppressed Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm, smoke wafting from the muzzle.”
In another post, he described what he wished to do to Bragg.
“I want to stand over Bragg and put a nice hole in his forehead with my 9mm and watch him twitch as a drop of blood oozes from the hole as his life ebbs away to hell!!” he wrote.
After the FBI was tipped off about Robertson’s online threats, he began targeting the bureau itself.
“Hey FBI, you still monitoring my social media? Checking so I can be sure to have a loaded gun handy in case you drop by again,” he wrote in one post.
Despite his detailed and gruesome posts, neighbors said Robertson was a frail, elderly man who used a cane and not someone they considered dangerous.
“There’s no way that he was driving from here to Salt Lake City, setting up a rifle and taking a shot at the president — 100% no way,” neighbor Andrew Maunder said.
Biden flew to Utah Wednesday and is scheduled to visit a Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake City Thursday.
Robertson seemingly spent his whole life in Utah.
He graduated from Orem High School in 1966 and enlisted in the Air Force in 1970, according to the local Fox station. He also attended trade school and Brigham Young University in Provo, his LinkedIn account states.
He worked as a structural steel and welding inspector for 45 before launching his own business, “Craig’s Custom Woods, LLC,” where he specialized in custom woodworking designs, he wrote on his LinkedIn profile.
Clark said he was a talented woodworker who carved his own cane.
The 75-year-old met his first wife, Carol Ann Harrison, at Brigham Young University, where they both were studying. They wed in February 1971 and had three children, two boys and one girl, together before they divorced in 1986, according to Harrison’s 2019 obituary.
Two years later, Robertson married his second wife, Jackie Christensen Robertson, in May 1988. They had no children and Jackie died in April 2008 at age 58, her obituary states.
Robertson’s two sons live in Utah, while his daughter is an attorney in Virginia, according to their online profiles.
The dad of three was charged with disorderly conduct in 1998, to which he pleaded no contest, according to state records. Details about the charge were not available.
The FBI’s Inspection Division is reviewing the shooting death of Robertson.
With Post wires
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