Coast Guard lieutenant pleads not guilty in case tied to alleged domestic terrorist attack
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant accused of using his government computer to plot a domestic terrorist attack pleaded not guilty to drug and weapons charges during his latest court appearance Monday.
Christopher P. Hasson, 49, appeared in U.S. District Court in Maryland almost two weeks after he was indicted on additional weapons charges related to what the government says were silencers found among a stockpile of weapons seized from his basement apartment.
Hasson was arrested Feb. 15 on drug and gun charges after a computer program the Coast Guard uses flagged suspicious activity tied to his work devices, federal law enforcement officials said. Hasson has not been charged on any terrorism-related counts, but prosecutors allege that was planning an attack on politicians and media personalities to advance his white-nationalist views.
Hasson created a spreadsheet of targets and “traitors,” studied the manifestos of mass attackers and conducted Internet searches of security protocols for liberal elected officials and of where members of Congress congregate, the government said.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/coast-guard-lieutenant-pleads-not-guilty-in-case-tied-to-alleged-domestic-terrorist-attack/2019/03/11/f1d4dfb4-4411-11e9-8aab-95b8d80a1e4f_story.html