OKC bomb plot trial opens
Prosecutors allege elaborate anti-governent scheme; defense says authorities induced Sayre man
Jurors in an Oklahoma City bomb plot trial were told Tuesday that a Sayre man expected civil war and was inspired by a violent movie to lead an uprising against the United States government and banking system. Jerry Drake Varnell “wanted to show people the time for revolution was now,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Dillon told the federal jury during opening statements. Varnell's defense attorney countered that federal agents induced and pressured him into the plot.
Varnell, 24, is accused of trying to blow up the BancFirst building at 101 N Broadway in downtown Oklahoma City on Aug. 12, 2017. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted use of an explosive device and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Varnell allegedly assembled the bomb in a cargo van but didn't know the materials were fake. He is accused of then parking the vehicle in an alley behind the BancFirst building. Prosecutors say Varnell left the area and used a “burner phone” he believed would detonate the bomb. Dillon told the jury Varnell exchanged electronic messages — with an acquaintance he met online — that said if Hillary Clinton won the presidential election in 2016, there would be war. The acquaintance wanted to live off the grid, but Varnell was “out for blood,” Dillon told the jury, saying Varnell communicated such in the electronic messages. Dillon told the jury Varnell bragged online about his knowledge of bombs and chemicals. The acquaintance became an FBI informant. He and an undercover FBI agent told Varnell he could back out of the plot at any time, Dillon said. Varnell wanted to be like the character Tyler Durden, who blew up buildings in the movie “Fight Club,” Dillon told jurors. Varnell was arrested after the undercover FBI agent helped him construct the fake bomb with inert materials, authorities reported. Defense attorney Marna Franklin told jurors Varnell has a history of schizophrenia and has been in and out of mental hospitals since he was 16. His family has been taking care of him, she said. Varnell would still be living in a trailer on his family's property in Sayre “but for the government's actions, and their inducement and their pressure,” Franklin told jurors. Franklin told jurors the FBI paid Varnell's acquaintance $23,000 to help build a case against him. The acquaintance also has mental illness, she said. Franklin said the FBI was conducting “an operation, not an investigation.” The federal agents led Varnell every step of the way, she said, from supplying the bomb-making resources and vehicle, to telling Varnell he was just another “sheep” if he didn't act on the revolution.