A judge ruled the Coast Guard lieutenant who was arrested in February and accused of planning to kill high-profile liberal figures can be released on bail.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day ruled on Thursday that Christopher Hasson can be granted bail because federal prosecutors failed to produce more severe charges beyond the gun and drug offenses he was being held on.
Hasson, a 50-year-old resident of Silver Spring, Md., was indicted in February on gun and drug possession charges. He was accused by federal authorities of being a white nationalist and domestic terrorist who was stockpiling weapons with the intent “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country” and supported a “white homeland.”
Prosecutors argued in a February detention memo filed in a U.S. District Court in Maryland that Hasson should not be released until his trial, saying his gun and drug charges were the “proverbial tip of the iceberg.”
“The defendant is a domestic terrorist bent on committing acts dangerous to human life,” the memo said.
But prosecutors have failed to file further, more severe charges against him, leading the judge to release Hasson for the lesser offenses with which he was charged.
“I do not find detention is appropriate. He’s entitled to be released,” Day said in court Thursday. The judge said conditions of release must be negotiated before Hasson’s release, but added there is “going to have to have a whole lot of supervision,” including home detention and electric monitoring.
Technically “domestic terrorism” has a legal definition but there is no federal statute criminalizing it. Prosecutors could bring charges if they have evidence that Hasson committed or tried to commit other crimes.
In total, 15 guns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition were seized from Hasson’s house during the February arrest. Federal prosecutors allege that he drafted a hit list of high-profile figures on his computer. Among those reportedly on the list are House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and media figures like MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Ari Melber and CNN’s Don Lemon.
Prosecutors say Anders Behring Breivik, who was behind the terrorist attacks in Norway that killed 77 people, was a particular inspiration to Hasson. In one of his writings, Hasson reportedly wrote, “I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth. I think a plague would be most successful but how do I acquire the needed/Spanish flu, botulism, anthrax not sure yet but will find something.”
