White nationalist held in terror plot
A 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 massive 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 Hasson had been amassing supplies and weapons since 2017 at the latest, developed a spreadsheet of targets that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, 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 in federal court in Greenbelt on Thursday.
He was arrested on illegal weapons and drug charges on Friday, but officials say those charges are the “proverbial tip of the iceberg.”
The U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland outlined in court documents Hasson’s alleged plans to spark chaos and destruction, describing a man obsessed with neofascist and neo-Nazi views.
“Please send me your violence that I may unleash it onto their heads,” Hasson wrote in a letter that prosecutors say was found in his email drafts. “Guide my hate to make a lasting impression on this world.”
The Office of the Federal Public Defender, which has been ordered to represent Hasson, declined to comment Wednesday.
Hasson has been working at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington since 2016, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.
He also served in the 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.
Court documents do not detail what prompted federal law enforcement to begin investigating Hasson, but they say he had been studying the 1,500-page manifesto of right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who unleashed two attacks in 2011 that killed 77 people in Norway. They say Hasson’s attack preparations resembled Breivik’s.
Breivik encouraged identifying targets and traitors. In recent weeks, 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 (RFla.), an MSNBC host; “cortez,” an alleged reference to freshman U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.); and “Sen blumen jew,” presumably Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Authorities seized 15 firearms, including several long guns and rifles, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition from Hasson’s basement apartment after executing a search warrant this month.
Over the last two years, he made nearly two dozen purchases of firearms or related equipment, and made thousands of visits to websites that sell weapons or tactical gear.
Bui writes for the Washington Post.