An ex-Congressional candidate who allegedly plotted to massacre a Muslim community in upstate New York was allowed to go free this week as his case proceeded, due to a federal judge’s order.
Meanwhile, another federal judge cast doubt on whether the defendant Robert Doggart – who is accused of planning to enlist a heavily-armed militia armed with assault rifles and machetes to attack a Muslim school and mosque – was a “true threat,” effectively torpedoing a plea agreement that could have put Doggart behind bars for up to five years.
Federal marshals arrested Doggart on April 10, after intercepting a call in which Doggart – who in 2014 ran an unsuccessful U.S. congressional campaign in Tennessee – allegedly threatened to attack a Muslim community in Hancock, N.Y. His lawyers and prosecutors came to an agreement where he would have pleaded guilty to a single charge of interstate communication of a threat, a charge that carries up to five years in prison.
However, due to federal judge Curtis Collier’s order, attorneys behind the deal have 21 days to prove that Doggart is “a true threat” in the eyes of the law. Both the prosecutor and government had acknowledged that it was a true threat, the Chattanoogan reported.
With federal magistrate Susan K. Lee reversing her earlier ruling and releasing Doggart into home confinement, he must now wear an electronic monitoring device, undergo psychiatric treatment, and stay off the internet as conditions of his release, according to the Chattanoogan.
An unsealed criminal complaint showed Doggart discussing how many men armed with assault rifles, Molotov cocktails, and even machetes would be necessary to burn down a school and mosque, and kill residents outside of the New York hamlet, nicknamed “Islamberg” by its residents. The complaint suggested Doggart tried to recruit participants through Facebook, referring to the community as “Target 3.”
“Target 3 is vulnerable…and must be utterly destroyed in order to get the attention of the American People,” Doggart wrote. He also told an FBI source that he’d set a April 15 deadline to carry out the armed attack, according to the plea agreement, which he said was “gonna start a civil war.”
Doggart wrote in another post: “Our small group will soon be faced with the fight of our lives…We shall be Warriors who will inflict horrible numbers of casualties upon the enemies of our Nation and World Peace.”
Members of the conservative media have purported that Islamberg, where The Muslims of America is headquartered, to be a training ground of radical Islamic terrorists.
A veteran and Christian National Church minister, Doggart spoke at last year’s Operation American Freedom protest.
Read the full criminal complaint below:
This post has been updated.
He’s an older white Republican, so no real threat, right?
WRONG.
Edit: Ask the DHS who have determined that right wing extremists are more of a threat in this country than Muslim extremists.
From the looks of his smile, it appears to me he went to the Chiclets Gum (Teeth Section) site, for his front teeth!
“His lawyers and prosecutors came to an agreement that Doggart signed where he would have pleaded guilty to a single charge of interstate communication of a threat, a charge that carries up to five years in prison.”
He would have faced ONLY FIVE YEARS in jail for using the internet to organize a terrorist attack on a small town ? Say what???
I’m sure it would have been longer if he had a darker shade of skin.
“[H]ave purported that Islamberg … to be”: For heaven’s sake, what has happened to our journalism schools?
Most informed Americans, including most judges and lawyers, should know about those studies and the recent press on this issue. I can’t imagine a judge doing this, but I guess there are still some judges who are Republicans or watch Fox Snooze.