What you should know about the man who was arrested for threatening to kill Biden

A potential registered sex offender in Florida has been arrested and charged with three counts related to threatening President Joe Biden and other federal officials, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday, just days after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The Secret Service, which has been under intense scrutiny since Trump was shot by a gunman whose motives remain a mystery, has been monitoring Jason Patrick Alday, 39, of Quincy, Florida, since late June and arrested him along with U.S. Marshalls on Monday, according to court documents.

Here’s what we know so far as the case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Welch, is currently before the courts.

“I want to kill him and cut his throat”

Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Jeffery S. Boothe described the alleged sequence of events in an affidavit in a criminal complaint filed in the Tallahassee Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

According to the affidavit, the Presidential Protection Agency first became aware of Alday on June 25, when Joann Noel, an admissions coordinator at the Apalachee Center, reported that Alday had checked himself into the mental hospital and said, “I don’t like President Biden. I want to kill him, slit his throat.”

Noel spoke with Tjamas Matthews, a senior Secret Service special agent in Tallahassee who visited Alday on July 1 accompanied by sheriff’s deputies at his parents’ home, where he lives. Alday denied making the statement and was agitated by Matthews’ questioning, the affidavit said.

On July 11, the Secret Service’s Open Source Intelligence Branch (OSB) noted that an X-account linked to Alday had posted the message “I’m going to kill Joe Biden today!!”

The OSB also flagged four other posts from the account, which was operated under the name Jason Alderman/@Jman86628004 and has since been suspended:

“Sources: Joe Biden’s health is deteriorating rapidly. He is not doing well at all. Should I take him out?” reads a post on June 30.

“The Secret Service sent a special agent with Gadsden County officials to my house. I will still slit Joe Biden’s throat,” said a July 1 post that included a racial slur.

“I want Special Agent Matthews dead too. That stupid n—– has to go!” was posted on July 5.

And later on July 11: “Where are you, Special Agent Matthews? Come and arrest me, N—–!! This is Jason Alday!!”

“He has mental problems”

In an arrest warrant, U.S. Judge Charles A. Stampelos ordered that Alday be transferred to the custody of the Attorney General’s Office and placed in a reformatory.

Stampelos noted his defense attorney’s arguments that Alday “obviously has no capacity to carry out any threats and has not taken any steps to carry out his threats” and that “he has only vented his anger online because he has mental health issues.”

According to court documents, Alday’s mother, Elizabeth, said her son has “schizoaffective disorder and ADHD, as well as being bipolar and autistic.” She said he relies on her daily medications, including a mood stabilizer, antidepressants and antipsychotic medication, and he receives state-mandated weekly therapy at home. She also said she has never seen him with a firearm and he cannot drive.

“A certain danger”

Prosecutors argued that even the most restrictive home conditions would not be enough for Alday, who had lost his ankle bracelet during a previous surveillance and “came to a physical assault when the probation officer began the investigation.”

Prosecutors also alleged that Alday had kitchen knives and a car at home and that he had had several run-ins with police in the past, including shoving a deputy during one of his several home visits.

Although Alday was declared “sane” by a state court in September 2023 and October 2021 and has hearings scheduled in state court in August and December of this year, his defense attorney said in federal court that she believes Alday “is sane for the purposes of these proceedings and that he appears to understand what is happening.”

Stampelos noted that the federal court was “not bound by the decisions of the state court” and concluded that Alday posed “some danger” to the community because he had demonstrated “a sustained trend of competency issues and violations over the past two years.”

While court documents relating to Alday’s current incarceration do not indicate any specific prior charges or offenses, a man with the same name and age is listed on the Florida sex offender and sex offender registry and is accused of sexually assaulting a minor between the ages of 12 and 15 in 2006.