Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Officials: Coast Guardsman arrested
Lieutenant had a political and media hit list, filing shows
Authorities say man stockpiled weapons to launch a terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists.
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist has been arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition in his Maryland home that authorities say he stockpiled to launch a domestic terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists.
Christopher Paul Hasson called for “focused violence” to “establish a white homeland” and dreamed of ways to “kill almost every last person on earth,” according to court records filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland. Though court documents do not detail a specific planned date for an attack, the government said he had been amassing supplies and weapons since 2017 at the latest, developed a spreadsheet of targets that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and searched the internet using phrases such as “best place in dc to see congress people” and “are supreme court justices protected.”
“The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country,” the government said in court documents filed this week, arguing that Hasson should stay in jail awaiting trial.
Hasson, of Silver Spring, is expected to appear before a judge for a detention hearing Thursday in federal court in Greenbelt.
Hasson was arrested on illegal weapons and drug charges Friday, but the government says those charges are the “proverbial tip of the iceberg.”
Officials with the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland outlined Hasson’s alleged plans to spark chaos and destruction in court documents, describing a man obsessed with neofascist and neo-Nazi views.
A magistrate judge ordered that the Office of the Federal Public Defender represent Hasson.
Hasson has been working at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington since 2016, according to court documents filed by prosecutors. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1988 to 1993 and in the Army National Guard for about two years in the mid-1990s.
Agents with the FBI field office in Baltimore and the Coast Guard Investigative Service arrested Hasson on Friday, FBI Baltimore spokesman Dave Fitz confirmed.
A Coast Guard spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Scott McBride, said Wednesday that Hasson no longer works at Coast Guard headquarters.
Court documents do not detail what prompted federal law enforcement to begin investigating Hasson, but they say Hasson has been studying the 1,500page manifesto of rightwing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who unleashed two attacks in 2011 that killed 77 in Norway.
Breivik took steroids and narcotics, believing it would heighten his abilities to carry out attacks. When law enforcement raided Hasson’s apartment, they said they found a locked container loaded with more than 30 vials of what appeared to be human growth hormones. He has also ordered more than 4,200 pills of the narcotic tramadol since 2016, along with synthetic urine to allegedly bypass possible random drug screenings at work, they said.
Breivik encouraged identifying targets and traitors.
In recent weeks, they said, Hasson developed a spreadsheet of targets that included top Democratic congressional leaders and media personalities. The list includes “JOEY,” what prosecutors say is a reference to former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., who works for MSNBC; “cortez,” an alleged reference to freshman Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-New York; and “Sen blumen jew,” presumably about Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Authorities seized 15 firearms and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition from his apartment.