Man linked to threats against Joe Biden to plead guilty to child porn charges in NC
Editor’s note: On Oct. 12, 2021, Treisman was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty in March to child pornography charges. Under the order of U.S. District Judge William Osteen, Treisman also will serve 15 years of supervised release after he is freed.
Alexander Treisman may be going to prison for a long time.
But based on a new court document, it won’t be for threatening to kill Joe Biden.
In a plea agreement filed in Greensboro on Thursday, Treisman agreed to plead guilty to three federal child-pornography charges, which potentially could put the Seattle man behind bars for a decade or more.
However, the new document makes no mention of a rash of Treisman’s disturbing online musings last year, which the FBI described as being “consistent with a surveillance and attack plan connected to a possible threat against Joe Biden or other targeted act of violence.”
Those allegations, which were included in an FBI affidavit, made national headlines when they became public two weeks before the presidential election in November — but have not led to criminal charges.
Why they are missing from Treisman’s plea agreement is not clear. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Greensboro, which is handling the case, did not respond Thursday to a Charlotte Observer email and phone call seeking comment.
Charlotte criminal defense attorney Claire Rauscher said it’s possible more charges could be filed.
“There’s nothing in the plea agreement that limits his exposure for other potential criminal acts,” said Rauscher, the former head of the federal public defender’s office in Charlotte who read the filing at the Observer’s request.
“Besides, the penalties he’s facing are very severe.”
Each of the three pornography-related charges in the plea agreement carries up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Based on the terms of the agreement and the nature of the charges, Rauscher estimates Treisman faces at least 10 years — maybe more depending on the amount of pornographic images and videos seized by authorities and the ages of the children depicted.
By contrast, the maximum sentence for threatening the president is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Treisman is one of two Charlotte-area suspects in recent months tied to threats against Biden.
Last month, David Kyle Reeves of Gastonia was charged with threatening Biden, Secret Service agents and other federal officials in a series of violent and rambling phone calls.
Treisman, who court documents describe as a troubled, heavily armed nomad zig-zagging the country, mused online of launching a repeat of the Columbine massacre and opening fire in a shopping mall food court on Black Friday.
In April, according to the FBI affidavit, Treisman posted the question: “Should I kill Joe Biden?”
He later told authorities that he had been joking. But the FBI in Charlotte said in its affidavit that agents had tracked Treisman’s cell phone and credit cards in early May to a Wendy’s in Delaware, 4 miles from Biden’s home.
Later that month, Treisman was arrested on state weapons charges in Kannapolis after police discovered his abandoned and unlocked van in a bank parking lot. A police search revealed a cache of high-powered weapons, some $500,000 in cash (later determined to be Treisman’s family inheritance) and possible material for making explosives.
His electronic devices also carried thousands of photos and hundreds of videos of child pornography, documents allege. He was indicted on the three pornography counts in September.
Prosecutors sought several postponements of his trial, arguing that the case was “complex and the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation related to charged and uncharged offenses” — a possible reference to the defendant’s threats of violence.
But the plea bargain included only the charges from his September indictment. The FBI office in Charlotte, which led the investigation of Treisman, referred questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Greensboro.
Lynne Klauer, the public information officer for the prosecutor’s office, did not respond to an Observer email and phone call Thursday seeking information about the plea agreement.
Treisman’s attorney, Sam Randall of Charlotte, also did not respond to an Observer phone call and email.
The plea agreement surfaces little more than a week after Treisman’s legal team suffered a significant courtroom defeat. Randall had asked U.S. District Judge William Osteen to throw out the evidence retrieved from Treisman’s van on the grounds that the search by Kannapolis police had been unconstitutional.
On Feb. 26, Osteen denied the motion, saying police had legitimate public safety concerns to justify seizing the van and searching it.
In the plea agreement, prosecutors said Treisman could plead guilty to the pornography charges without sacrificing his right to appeal Osteen’s ruling.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
