Feds seek 25-year sentence for Coast Guard officer accused of targeting lawmakers, justices

A Coast Guard lieutenant accused of stockpiling guns for the planned murder of liberal Supreme Court justices, Democrats and TV journalists is reportedly asking for leniency as federal prosecutors call on a court to sentence him to 25 years in prison.

Christopher Hasson allegedly spent about $12,000 to buy weapons, tactical vests and body armor and performed internet searches for phrases such as “most liberal fed judges usa” and “how to rid the us of Jews” as well as compiling a hit list that included Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as well as MSNBC and CNN commentators, prosecutors said.

Hasson also reportedly researched how to build bombs and said in a letter that he had been a white nationalist for decades, with prosecutors saying he “advocated for ‘focused violence’ in order to establish a white homeland,” The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

“The defendant — inspired by racist murderers — stockpiled assault weapons, studied violence, and intended to exact retribution on minorities and those he considered traitors. But for the diligent actions of multiple federal law enforcement agencies, we now would be counting bodies of the defendant’s victims instead of years of the defendant’s prison time,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom wrote last week.

Hasson’s lawyers have argued against prosecutors’ claim he is a domestic terrorist and asked a federal judge in Maryland to sentence him to jail time served and three years’ supervised release.

Hasson is set to be sentenced Jan. 31.

Although prosecutors have said he intended to carry out mass murder, they did not file terrorism charges against him. In October, Hasson pleaded guilty to possessing unregistered and unserialized silencers and illegal possession of the opioid painkiller tramadol.