Anthony Borrelli

aborrelli@pressconnects.com | @PSBABorrelli

A trial is underway in federal court for a Tennessee man accused of planning an attack on a Muslim community based in New York's Delaware County.

Robert Doggart, who ran for Congress in 2014 in East Tennessee and finished with 6 percent of the vote, went on trial Monday in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga.

Prosecutor Saeed Mody spoke to the 12-person jury first after lawyers spent Monday morning choosing jurors from a pool of 32 people, according to a report in The Chattanooga Times Free Press. The trial is expected to last about a week.

Doggart, now 65, has pleaded not guilty to the accusations contained in a four-count federal indictment that stems from his initial arrest by federal marshals on April 10, 2015.

FBI agents began investigating Doggart in February 2015, when agents became aware of threatening Facebook posts by the Tennessee politician targeting an area near Hancock in Delaware County that was often referred to as "Islamberg," according to court papers.

A further investigation by the FBI found that Doggart had maps of the Hancock complex as well as literature on gun laws in New York state, court papers say, and he also allegedly spoke with an FBI informant about making Molotov cocktails to burn the buildings.

Court papers say Doggart allegedly told the informant he would provide various weapons, stating, "those guys (have) to be killed. Their buildings need to be burnt down. If we can get in there and do that not losing a man, even the better."

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tennessee's Eastern District argues Doggart's alleged conduct established a "true threat."

"The defendant was fully aware of the religious character of the mosque when he identified it as one of the buildings that needed to be burned," federal prosecutors said in a court filing.

Defense attorneys for Doggart have argued in court papers that Doggart's curiosity about "Islamberg" was not sinister, "but a normal response to the information to which he was exposed on the Internet."

Muslim hamlet sues over attack plot

The Muslims of America, the group targeted by Doggart, has previously commented through a news release in May 2015, stating their dissatisfaction with the court's releasing Doggart on bail while awaiting trial.

"All would agree, if a Muslim did this, the perpetrator would be immediately identified as a terrorist then prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Muhammad Matthew Gardner, public-relations director for the group, in the news release.

Guilty plea got tossed

The case against Doggart has been working its way to trial since a federal judge's previous decision that tossed out the defendant's May 2015 guilty plea to one count of interstate communication of threats, which holds a maximum penalty of five years in prison, in connection with the case.

In a June 2015 court filing, U.S. District Court Judge Curtis Collier said the facts contained in Doggart's plea at the time did not contain a threat the could support a conviction.

Collier centered his ruling around statements Doggart allegedly made to the FBI informant.

"The communication in the instant plea agreement may have been intended to gain recruits (or perhaps for some other reason), but there is no basis to believe anyone would see the communication as being conveyed to further defendant's goals through intimidation," Collier said in court papers.

As a result, federal prosecutors obtained a new indictment in May 2016.

The grand jury handed up an indictment to charge Doggart with four felonies: solicitation to commit a civil rights violation, solicitation to commit arson of a building and two counts of threat in interstate commerce.

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The Associated Press contributed to this article.