Coast Guard officer who drafted hit list pleads guilty to drug and weapons charges
Source: CBS News
Greenbelt, Maryland A Coast Guard lieutenant who prosecutors said compiled a hit list of prominent Democratic leaders and media personalities pleaded guilty to four felony counts of drug and weapons-related charges in federal court here Thursday. He faces up to 31 years in prison.
Christopher Hasson, who identified as a "long time White Nationalist" in emails obtained by prosecutors, had initially entered a plea of not guilty, but shifted legal strategy after a series of setbacks in court last month.
U.S. District Judge George Hazel accepted the guilty plea in court on Thursday, as Hasson's wife looked on
Hasson, 50, worked as an acquisitions officer and was arrested at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington in February. Investigators said they found 15 firearms, two homemade silencers and more 1,000 rounds of ammunition in his Maryland home, as well as at least 100 pills of the painkiller Tramadol and more than 30 bottles of purported human growth hormone.
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BY ROBERT LEGARE
OCTOBER 3, 2019 / 1:33 PM / CBS NEWS
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christopher-hasson-coast-guard-lieutenant-who-drafted-hit-list-pleads-guilty-to-drug-weapons-charges/
Judi Lynn
(160,649 posts)Christopher Hasson is accused of stockpiling weapons and targeting supreme court justices, Democrats and journalists
Associated Press in Washington
Thu 3 Oct 2019 13.59 EDT
Federal prosecutors called US coast guard lieutenant Christopher Hasson a self-described white nationalist and domestic terrorist intent on carrying out mass killings.
He was accused of stockpiling weapons and targeting supreme court justices, prominent Democrats and TV journalists.
On Thursday he pleaded guilty to four gun and drug charges but no terrorism-related crimes.
Prosecutors did not file any such charges after Hasson was arrested in February. With his plea, he faces up to 31 years in prison. Sentencing is set for 31 January.
Two of the four counts in Hassons indictment charged him with illegally possessing unregistered and unserialized silencers. He was also charged with possession of a firearm by an unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance, and illegal possession of tramadol, an opioid painkiller.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/03/neo-nazi-coast-guard-officer-pleads-guilty-to-gun-and-drug-charges