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A Massachusetts man who repeatedly threatened to kill President Trump was arrested on Wednesday after brandishing a sword during a standoff with F.B.I. agents and other officials, the authorities said. Andrew D. Emerald, 45, of Great Barrington, Mass., was arrested and charged with eight counts of interstate transmission of threatening communications in connection with multiple social media posts threatening the president, according to officials.
Mr. Emerald appeared in court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to all counts, according to a court docket.
A lawyer listed for Mr. Emerald did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening. According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Mr. Emerald made repeated threats against the president’s life on Facebook, including several posts in which he threatened to use a sword. Some of his posts were graphic and called for the president to be killed publicly, the authorities said. In one, Mr. Emerald mentioned tracking the president to his Florida home, the according to court documents.
“I have very good reason to threaten his life and to go after it,” reads one post from May 15, 2025.
F.B.I. agents and other officials arrived to Mr. Emerald’s home on Wednesday morning to arrest him, but they received no response from Mr. Emerald, who was home, according to court documents. They used a battering ram to force open the front door. Eventually, Mr. Emerald stepped into view of the agents, holding a long sword, the documents said. He refused to drop his sword, told the agents they would have to shoot him and closed and bolted the door. After a standoff, officials convinced Mr. Emerald to leave his sword and come out of the apartment, and he was taken into custody. Agents found six blades of varying lengths in a search of the home, according to court documents. Two of the blades were long swords.
Mr. Emerald told the agents that he did not want to speak with them and that he had already contacted a lawyer before leaving his apartment.
After he was in custody, he told the agents that they were lucky they weren’t with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or he would have come out of his apartment with the sword, the documents said.
The authorities had previously visited Mr. Emerald in 2018 after receiving a tip about his posts threatening the president, the documents said. At the time, Mr. Emerald told officers he would never post about politics again and willingly submitted himself into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which revoked his ability to purchase firearms, according to court documents.
But last May, another person submitted a tip about Mr. Emerald’s threats against the president. The tipster replied to one of Mr. Emerald’s posts saying it was illegal to threaten the president, and Mr. Emerald responded that he had done so for a decade and would kill any law enforcement officer who tried to arrest him, the authorities said. The federal prosecutor’s office requested Mr. Emerald be held in custody while his case continues, according to court documents. A judge ordered him to be held until a hearing on Monday.
