WASHINGTON – A Kansas man who was traveling to Washington was being held Saturday on charges of threatening President Joe Biden, authorities said.
Scott Merryman was in the Washington County Detention Center in Hagerstown, Maryland, awaiting a court appearance set for Monday, a detention center official said.
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A court filing in the case said Merryman phoned police in Independence, Kansas, on Tuesday and told them that he was going to the nation's capital to see the president.
In a telephone interview with a U.S. Secret Service agent on Wednesday, Merryman said that God told him to go to Washington to cut off “the head of the serpent in the heart of the nation," the filing states.
Merryman denied in the interview that Biden was the serpent, though in a Facebook post he identified the president as the “AntiChrist” and said “he will suffer a fatal head wound.” Merryman added, “I'll deal that blow in Christ's name.”
Another Secret Service agent located Merryman at the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Hagerstown. The agent searched Merryman and found three rounds of ammunition and a spotting scope, but no gun or other weapons, according to the court document.
On Thursday, Merryman called the White House switch board and threatened Biden, the document says.
The criminal complaint calling for his arrest on the federal charges was filed Friday.