TerrorismKansas anti-Muslim bomb plotters sentenced to long prison terms
Three members of a far-right militia, who were convicted of plotting to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas immediately after the November 2016 election, were sentenced Friday to decades in prison. The terrorist plot was foiled after another militia member informed the police. Defense attorneys, in their sentencing memo, vigorously presented what came to be known as The Trump Defense: They argued that Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2016 election made attacks against Muslims appear legitimate. The defense attorneys also argued that the plot architect had been “immersed” in Russian disinformation and far-right propaganda, leading him to believe that if Donald Trump won the election, then-President Barack Obama would declare martial law and not recognize the validity of the election — forcing armed militias to step in to ensure that Trump became president.
Three members of a far-right militia, who were convicted of plotting to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas, were sentenced Friday to decades in prison.
U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren sentenced Patrick Stein, the alleged ringleader, to 30 years in prison and Curtis Allen, who drafted a manifesto for the group, to 25 years. Gavin Wright, who authorities said helped make and test explosives at his mobile home business, received 26 years.
The terrorist plot was foiled after another militia member informed the police.
Melgren dismissed defense attorneys’ request that he take into the account the divisive political atmosphere in which the men formed their plot to blow up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants in the meatpacking town Garden City, about 220 miles west of Wichita, on the day after the 2016 election.
“We have extremely divisive elections because our system is to resolve those through elections and not violence,” Melgren said.
The Trump Defense
Defense attorneys, in a sentencing memo submitted to the court last November, vigorously presented what came to be known as The Trump Defense.
“The court cannot ignore the circumstances of one of the most rhetorically mold-breaking, violent, awful, hateful and contentious presidential elections in modern history, driven in large measure by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president,” the defense lawyers’ sentencing memo read. “Trump’s brand of rough-and-tumble verbal pummeling heightened the rhetorical stakes for people of all political persuasions.”
The attorneys cited a Pew Research Centre study which revealed that Trump’s presidential win resulted in an exponential increase of anti-Muslim violence. They also referred to several of the president’s tweets, including one in which Trump – without any evidence – claimed the migrant caravan marching toward the U.S. contained “criminals” and “unknown Middle Easterners.”
“As long as the White House with impunity calls Islam ‘a dangerous threat’, and paints average Americans as ‘victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad,’ a mixed signal gets sent,” the defense sentencing memo added.
