A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant was arrested for plotting to kill prominent politicians in a mass shooting.
The 49-year-old suspect, identified as Christopher Paul Hasson, is a self-described "white nationalist" who amassed a stockpile of weapons in an attempt to kill Democratic lawmakers and journalists. The Washington Post reports Hasson appeared in court Thursday morning where he said he wanted to carry out an attack inspired by Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian extremist. In 2011, Behring murdered 77 people in what he called a “martyrdom operation.”
The right-wing extremist was sentenced to 21 years, Norway's maximum sentence.
According to a report from ABC News, Hasson compiled a kill list which featured top Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, current Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sens. Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren. The list also included MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and other supposed left-leaning media personalities from CNN.
"The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country. He must be detained pending trial. … The defendant is a domestic terrorist," prosecutors said in a court document filed Wednesday.
Hasson was arrested on several charges including "possession of firearms and ammunition by an unlawful user or addict of controlled substances, and with possession of tramadol," the Justice Department said. There were at least 15 different types of firearms and 1,000 rounds found in his basement apartment.
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The Marine veteran signed a lease in 2016 for the apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland. Reports state he was currently stationed at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. A tip for the U.S. Coast Guard given to the FBI indicates Hasson wrote in an email about a planned attack similar to 1996 Olympic park bomber Eric Rudolph's terror attack.
"I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth," he wrote in a June 2, 2017 draft email. "I think a plague would be most successful but how do I acquire the needed/ Spanish flu, botulism, anthrax not sure yet but will find something."
He allegedly claimed white people were being wiped out by a "liberalist/globalist ideology." Far-right extremists use the term "globalist" as code for anti-Semitic rhetoric. Hasson further explained in his email draft that blood had to be spilled to spur white retaliation.
According to CNN, Hasson wrote a draft letter to an American neo-Nazi leader in September of 2017, a month after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
In that letter, the suspected terrorist bragged about his ties to neo-Nazism and white nationalism. He had been a skinhead 30 years ago before his time in the armed forces and served in three branches of the military.
Additionally, he said he "fully support[s] the idea of a white homeland … We need a white homeland as Europe seems lost."
The Coast Guard released a statement late Wednesday detailing how it was working with the FBI.
"An active duty Coast Guard member, stationed at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC, was arrested last week on illegal weapons and drug charges as a result of an ongoing investigation led by the Coast Guard Investigative Service, in cooperation with the FBI and Department of Justice. Because this is an open investigation, the Coast Guard has no further details at this time," according to a statement from the U.S. Coast Guard.
In the meantime, Hasson appeared in court Thursday for a detention hearing.
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