FBI agent said Pittsburgh man's Twitter posts were intended to intimidate investigators

Part of FBI Special Agent Nicholas Edquist’s job as a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force was to review social media accounts for possible threats.

In the fall of 2020, as he was involved in an investigation into a threat made a year earlier on YouTube, Edquist had attempted to interview University of Pittsburgh student Khaled Miah.

But Miah was uncooperative.

Within days of the attempted interview, Miah had switched his profile picture on Twitter to an image of Edquist’s wife, complete with her place of employment, age and other personal identifiers.

The picture also included two Turkish flags on her cheeks. Miah also used other images he found online — including of the couple’s wedding party — on his pages, as well.

Edquist already knew from his investigation that Miah appeared to support violent extremism, that he frequented a shooting range and that he spoke reverently of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“The personal concerns were not knowing what the defendant’s true intentions were,” Edquist testified Friday. “He, clearly, had some type of personal vendetta against me.”

Miah, 28, is charged with eight criminal counts, including interstate threats, retaliating against a federal officer by threats and destruction of records in a federal investigation. He was arrested on Jan. 6 and has remained in custody since.

His jury trial began Thursday before U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy in Pittsburgh. During opening statements, the defense said that Miah, who has been diagnosed with mental illness, never intended to threaten the agent, and that instead he was trolling the FBI on his social media accounts.

But during his testimony Friday, Edquist said that he felt the tweets were meant to “threaten, harass and intimidate us.” He was the first witness called Friday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Smolar in the case against Miah.

Much of Edquist’s testimony centered on Miah’s Twitter accounts — when they were created, what he posted and what he deleted. Among his account names, the FBI said, Miah used “FishingExpedition,” “Federal Intelligence Service” and “Lugenpresse,” which means “lying press” in German.

The investigation into Miah began after the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center got a tip about a comment he posted on YouTube responding to a user named “Mosul Medic,” a former military member who posted a video on how to treat a gunshot wound.

In the comment, Miah wrote: “Hey, medic, you’ll be needed in America. Tick-tock, tick-tock. We are all here. You’ll find out very soon soon soon.”

“The initial concern was the unprompted threat of violence and violence in America,” Edquist said. “That is something we take seriously at the FBI.”

Part of their investigation, the agent said, was to find out if Miah was dangerous and what his ideology was.

Throughout the summer of 2020, agents reviewed Miah’s financial and school records, his social media accounts, and they conducted surveillance. Later, they searched his home and put a tracker on his car.

The tweets they found from him, Edquist testified, made it appear that Miah believed in a violent and vengeful form of Islam.

Once Miah knew he was under investigation — and that the agents were looking at his Twitter accounts — Miah pinned a different tweet to the top of one of them.

He wrote, on Oct. 1, 2020, “God bless America. God bless the world. Democracy for all. Say no to racism. … Life is better when we all get along.”

Edquist called that post “self-serving.” He testified that, at the same time, Miah deleted posts in which he praised the Sept. 11 attacks, probably because Miah thought they might be incriminating.

Shortly after the Twitter posts started targeting Edquist, who Miah frequently referred to as a white supremacist, the agent said he was removed from being the lead investigator on the case to avoid any perception of bias.

Still, Edquist continued in a support role, reviewing data from the GPS tracker they installed on his car.

According to the GPS system, Miah was in the vicinity of Edquist’s home four times in October and November of 2020, and stopped across from it for several minutes.

“This is not indicative of someone just passing through?” Smolar asked.

“That’s correct,” the agent replied.

The same day Miah had stopped near the agent’s house, Edquist said, Miah drove to Washington, D.C. He spent a few hours there at locations around the National Mall and returned to Pittsburgh the next morning — again driving by Edquist’s home.

The vehicle tracker also showed that Miah frequented the area around the FBI’s South Side headquarters at least 13 times, the agent said.

The trial is expected to continue through the middle of next week.