Terrorism suspect held amid probe
GREENBELT, Md. — At a hearing Thursday, a Coast Guard lieutenant who used his work computer in what prosecutors contend was planning for a wide-scale domestic terrorist attack was ordered held for 14 days while the government weighs additional charges against him.
Christopher P. Hasson, 49, of Maryland, was arrested on gun and drug charges last week after federal law-enforcement officials seized a stockpile of guns and ammunition from his basement apartment that court filings say is in Silver Spring. Prosecutors said he amassed the weapons along with other tactical supplies to prepare for an attack to further his white-nationalist views.
“I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth,” Hasson said in one of his letters that contemplated creating a biological plague, according to records filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland.
At the Thursday hearing before a federal magistrate, Hasson’s federal public defender said the court filings are a “histrionic characterization of Mr. Hasson,” who she said has no criminal record.
Hasson has not been charged with any terrorismrelated counts but faces weapons and drug charges. But in court filings, officials with the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland outlined his alleged plans for a rampage and argued that he should remain in jail while awaiting trial.
At his detention hearing, prosecutors said Hasson spent $14,000 a year on arms and equipment to prepare for an attack and that he read manifestos of several mass attackers, including the Unabomber and the Virginia Tech shooter.
Hasson called for “focused violence” to “establish a white homeland,” prosecutors said in court filings. It’s unclear whether Hasson had a specific date for an attack,
but the government said he had been stockpiling weapons for at least two years.
During their raid this month, law enforcement officers seized 15 firearms and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
As recently as Jan. 17, Hasson created a list of “traitors” and targets in a spreadsheet while reviewing various broadcast-news sites from his work computer, court filings show. The list included people prosecutors believe to be Sen. Kamala Harris, D-calif., CNN reporter Don Lemon and nearly two dozen others.
Hasson was an activeduty member of the Coast Guard when he was arrested last week. He has been at headquarters in Washington since 2016 but no longer works for the agency, according to court filings and a Coast Guard spokesman. Court filings say he also served in the Marine Corps from 1988 to 1993 and in the Army National Guard for about two years after that.
Others on Hasson’s hit list included former congressman Joe Scarborough, R-fla., who now co-hosts an MSNBC show and has been a target of President Donald Trump’s disdain; two of Scarborough’s MSNBC colleagues, hosts Chris Hayes and Ari Melber; and CNN’S Lemon, Chris Cuomo and Van Jones.
This is the second time in recent months that prominent politicians, Trump critics and TV journalists have been targeted by domestic terrorists.
In the fall, a 56-year-old Florida man was charged with sending 13 homemade pipe bombs to Hillary Clinton, former president Barack Obama, CNN and others.