Government says Christopher Hasson was plotting ‘to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A federal judge on Thursday denied bail for Lt Christopher Hasson, a neo-Nazi member of the US coast guard who the government says was plotting “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country”.

Law enforcement officers seized 15 guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition from Hasson’s Silver Spring, Maryland, home earlier this week. Court documents quoted an email in which Hasson wrote he was “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth”. He was arrested this week on drug and gun charges.

In arguing against bail, the federal prosecutor Jennifer Sykes said Hasson would log on to his government computer during work and spend hours searching for information on such people as the Unabomber, the Virginia Tech gunman and the anti-abortion bomber Eric Rudolph.

Neo-Nazi in coast guard plotted attack on Democrats and journalists, say prosecutors Read more

Sykes said the charges so far were just the “tip of the iceberg” and called Hasson a “domestic terrorist” who appeared to be planning attacks inspired by the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian rightwing extremist who killed 77 people in a 2011 bomb-and-shooting rampage.

In court papers this week, federal prosecutors said Hasson compiled what appeared to be a computer-spreadsheet hitlist that included the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, and presidential hopefuls such as senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. Also mentioned were such figures as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough and CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Van Jones.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The firearms and ammunition that was in the motion for detention pending trial in the case against Christopher Paul Hasson. Photograph: AEly/AP

Public defender Julie Stelzig accused prosecutors of making inflammatory accusations against her client without providing the evidence to back them up. “It is not a crime to think negative thoughts about people,” she said.

Defense lawyers said Hasson’s weapons stash was “modest at best” and denied that the list of names kept by Hasson was a hitlist.

Stelzig said Hasson did not have a criminal record and had served 28 years in the coast guard. She described him as a “committed public servant” and a loving husband and father.

The judge called the evidence “concerning” and gave prosecutors two weeks to file additional charges tied to the terror plot allegations.

Court documents included evidence that Hasson searched online for “civil war if trump impeached” and “what if trump illegally impeached”.

Hasson, a former US Marine, also corresponded with a white supremacist leader, said he had been a “skinhead” for more than 30 years and discussed plans to establishe a breakaway white homeland inside the US, prosecutors alleged.