Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, was refused bail in Maryland on Thursday on drug and gun charges while prosecutors gather evidence to support more serious charges involving what they portrayed as a domestic terror plot by a man who espoused white-supremacist views
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant who is accused of drawing up a hit list of top Democrats and had plans to carry out a domestic terror attack is being held without bail.
Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, was refused bail in Maryland on Thursday on drug and gun charges while prosecutors gather evidence to support more serious charges involving what they portrayed as a domestic terror plot by a man who espoused white-supremacist views.
Hasson, a former Marine who worked at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, was arrested last week. Federal agents found 15 firearms and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition following a raid on his basement apartment in Silver Spring.
They allege that Hasson began the process of targeting specific victims and had compiled a list of prominent congressional Democrats, 2020 presidential candidates, activists and media commentators.
Hasson's list of prominent Democrats included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Richard Blumenthal 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.
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.
His online search records show he searched for 'joe Scarborough' after reading media headlines that said the MSNBC Morning Joe host had referred to President Trump as 'the worst ever'. He also searched 'where is morning joe filmed' and looked up where the TV host lived.
Federal agents seized 15 firearms - including several long-guns and rifles - and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition during a raid on his cramped basement apartment
Hasson created the hit list in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (pictured above) that included prominent Democrats, 2020 presidential candidates, activists and media commentators
In arguing against bail on Thursday, federal prosecutor Jennifer Sykes said Hasson would log onto his government computer during work and spend hours searching for information on such people as the Unabomber, the Virginia Tech gunman and anti-abortion bomber Eric Rudolph.
Sykes said the charges so far are just the 'tip of the iceberg' and called Hasson a 'domestic terrorist' who appeared to be planning attacks inspired by the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a 2011 bomb-and-shooting rampage.
Public defender Julie Stelzig accused prosecutors of making inflammatory accusations against her client without providing the evidence to back them up. 'It is not a crime to think negative thoughts about people,' she said.
She also questioned whether the government is trying to make an example out of Hasson, given criticism that authorities have overlooked domestic terrorists.
'Perhaps now they can say, 'Look, we're not targeting only Muslims,' she said.
Stelzig said Hasson doesn't have a criminal record and has served 28 years in the Coast Guard. She described him as a 'committed public servant' and a loving husband and father.
Hasson spent about $14,000 on weapons, survival gear and other equipment, Sykes said. But public defender argued that the number of firearms found in Hasson's apartment is 'modest, at best' for many gun collectors in other parts of the country.
'There is nothing I'm seeing in here that would show he was stockpiling weapons,' Stelzig said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day agreed to keep Hasson behind bars but said he is willing to revisit his decision in 14 days if prosecutors haven't brought more serious charges by then.
It comes after court papers alleged that Hasson had espoused extremist views for years.
The 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 pondered 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
