WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — A Coast Guard lieutenant planned on killing at least 22 prominent Democratic leaders and media personalities, including Beto O’Rourke and Sheila Jackson Lee, according to court filings in the U.S. District Court of Maryland.
Christopher Paul Hasson was arrested on February 15 and is due to appear in federal court in Maryland on Thursday.
He was arrested on gun and drug offenses, but prosecutors say those charges are the "proverbial tip of the iceberg."
"The defendant is a domestic terrorist, bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct," prosecutors wrote in court papers .
Hasson, who works at the Coast Guard's headquarters in Washington, has espoused extremist views for years, according to prosecutors.
Court papers detail a June 2017 draft email in which Hasson wrote that he was "dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth," and pondering how he might be able to acquire anthrax and toxins to create botulism or a deadly influenza.
In the same email, Hasson described an "interesting idea" that included "biological attacks followed by attack on food supply" as well as a bombing and sniper attacks, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.
In September 2017, Hasson sent himself a draft letter that he had written to a neo-Nazi leader and "identified himself as a White Nationalist for over 30 years and advocated for 'focused violence' in order to establish a white homeland," prosecutors wrote.
Hasson routinely read portions of a manifesto written by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik that prosecutors said instructs would-be assailants to collect firearms, food, disguises and survival tools, court papers said.
Breivik, a right-wing extremist, is serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a 2011 bomb-and-shooting rampage.
Hasson also expressed admiration for Russia. "Looking to Russia with hopeful eyes or any land that despises the west's liberalism," he wrote in the draft email.
Prosecutors say during the past two years he had regularly searched online for pro-Russian as well as neo-Nazi literature.
Prosecutors allege that Hasson visited thousands of websites that sold guns and researched military tactical manuals on improvised munitions.
Federal agents found 15 firearms — including several rifles — and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition inside Hasson's basement apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland. They also found a container with more than 30 bottles that were labeled as human growth hormone, court papers said.
Prosecutors wrote that Hasson "began the process of targeting specific victims," including several prominent Democrats in Congress and 2020 presidential candidates.
In February 2018, he searched the internet for the "most liberal senators," as well as searching "do senators have ss (secret service) protection" and "are supreme court justices protected," according to the court filing.
Hasson's list of prominent Democrats included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and presidential hopefuls Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris.
The list — created in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet — also included mentions of John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough and CNN's Chris Cuomo and Van Jones, according to the court filing.
Hasson appeared to be a chronic user of the opioid painkiller Tramadol and had purchased a flask filled with four ounces of "synthetic urine" online, prosecutors said. Authorities suspect Hasson had purchased fake urine to use in case he was randomly selected for a drug test.
The chief at the federal defender's office in Maryland — which is representing Hasson — declined comment on the allegations. The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hasson's arrest. No one answered the door Wednesday at the home address for Hasson listed in public records.
Hasson's arrest on Feb. 15 was first noted by Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
To view the full court documents detailing Hasson's plans and hit list, click here.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee issued the following statement on Thursday:
“Yesterday’s arrest of a Coast Guard officer in a plot to target Democratic members of Congress and members of the media is troubling. I am also deeply troubled by the contents of a letter written by the suspect quoted by prosecutors, reflecting the desire to start a race war targeting non-whites. I implore all who hear words of hate and intolerance to disregard them and I urge all who contribute to hateful rhetoric to pause and consider the impact their words have on those listening.
"The arrest of this Coast Guard officer is also disturbing as the plot revealed by law enforcement is similar to an earlier plot concocted last year by another deranged individual, who mailed pipe bombs to individuals identified by the President as “enemies of the people.” And, yesterday’s arrest comes on the same day that the President renewed his attack on the New York Times, dubbing it “enemy of the people,” after it published a lengthy expose detailing the president’s pattern of obstruction of justice during the first two years of his administration. Thereafter, the publisher of the New York Times criticized the President’s language and warned him that the language was reminiscent of that employed by dictators and authoritarians.
“This type of language, and prolonged denigration of the free press is inconsistent with American ideals, and unbecoming of a President of the United States. I call upon him to cease and desist immediately.”
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