Trial begins for Etna man accused of threatening FBI agents online

A federal prosecutor said Thursday that Khaled Miah was so fixated on the FBI agents investigating his online conduct that he began targeting them personally — scouring the internet to find information about them, their spouses and pets.

That fixation escalated into threats against the agents in which Miah invoked the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the prosecutor told a jury in her opening statement at Miah’s trial.

Miah’s defense attorney countered that what her client was really doing was trolling the FBI agents, mocking them.

“This is a case about words, offensive words,” defense attorney Catherine McDonald said in her opening statement.

Miah, 28, of Etna, is charged with eight counts, including interstate threats, retaliating against a federal officer by threats and destruction of records in a federal investigation.

Miah, who was born in Bangladesh, was arrested by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Pittsburgh on Jan. 6. He has remained in custody since.

His trial before U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy in Pittsburgh is expected to continue into next week.

During her opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Smolar told jurors that the FBI began investigating Miah after a threat they said he made on YouTube in 2019.

Smolar said it wasn’t until Sept. 28, 2020, after investigators attempted to interview Miah, that he began to target them.

“Miah was entirely uncooperative with the agents,” Smolar said.

On the evening of Sept. 28, 2020, he went to the FBI’s office on Pittsburgh’s South Side and told a guard there he wanted to file a complaint.

He was told to return the next day. At the same time, an agent was leaving the office and Smolar told the jury that Miah sped up in the lane next to him, aggressively followed him and tried to take the agent’s picture. The next day, the FBI again tried to interview Miah, and again he was uncooperative, Smolar said.

Several days later, the FBI discovered that Miah had altered a profile photo on one of his Twitter accounts to be the wife of an agent, Smolar said. She said he had scrubbed the internet to find wedding pictures of the agent and his wife.

In addition, Smolar said, Miah used that woman’s workplace, education, hometown and physical attributes on the account.

Smolar told the jurors that Miah weaponized his social media accounts to threaten the agents.

“Miah’s vengeful actions rose to an entirely different level,” she said.

Because of Miah’s behavior, Smolar said, the agent and his wife were required to change their daily activities.

After the FBI conducted a search of Miah’s home on Oct. 9, 2020, Smolar said he told them he would stop his behavior.

“Miah’s promise not to do this again could not be further from the truth,” she told the jury.

In searching Miah’s electronic devices, agents found extensive information about terrorist attacks, explosives, the brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing and more images of the FBI agent, his wife and siblings.

Through the months of November and December 2020, Smolar said, Miah’s fixation on the agents “deepened and escalated.”

He made new Twitter accounts and tweeted about the agents.

On Dec. 27, in an account titled “Federal Intelligence Service,” he wrote, “Currently eating pasta and watching videos of the second plane hit the south tower,” Smolar read to the jury.

He also wrote, addressing the agents, “Nick, Dave, Mike, the whole bureau, the deed will be done at a time which is the most opportunistic for me, chosen by myself.”

He also tweeted the coordinates for FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“Given Miah’s words, actions, consumption of violent materials … they were legitimately concerned for themselves, their families and the public,” Smolar said.

McDonald, who represents Miah, said her client never intended to threaten anyone.

“Mr. Miah’s intent was actually to ridicule and mock the FBI, not to threaten them,” she said.

Miah is represented by attorneys from the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, based in Richardson, Texas.

“We’re not just defending Mr. Miah,” McDonald said. “We’re also defending words and freedom of speech.”

McDonald told the jury that her client, a non-practicing Muslim, is a U.S. citizen who has lived in Pittsburgh since he was 8. He previously was enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied economics.

Miah is the youngest of five children, his attorney said, and his father’s death in 2010 impacted him significantly. In 2012, he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Since his arrest, McDonald said, Miah was diagnosed with unspecified mental disorder and psychosis.

She said his conditions make him unable to see how others view him. His thought process, McDonald told the jury, is akin to an adolescent boy.

McDonald also read tweets from Miah, including one from Nov. 11, 2020, in which he wrote, “I don’t believe in violence, but I believe in defending people.”

“Nothing violent ever came out of these words,” she said. “To Mr. Miah, this was all a joke.”

In addition to the account “Federal Intelligence Service,” Miah also created another Twitter account called “Fishing Expedition.” On that one, he used a picture of the fictional Borat character on it.

“He intended to mock and annoy the FBI — the way he’d done for months,” McDonald said. “The FBI felt one of their own had been wronged by Mr. Miah. The FBI made it a cause to see that Mr. Miah’s words and speech were canceled.”