Kansas anti-Muslim bomb plotters sentenced to long prison terms
The attorneys argued that although Trump is a “speaker with the best bully pulpit in the world,” he is “never sanctioned for spreading fear and advocating harm.” They also attempted to make the case that a harsh sentence would not discourage other potential right-wing extremists from carrying out similar bias-motivated attacks.
“As long as the Executive Branch condemns Islam and commends and encourages violence against would-be enemies, then a sentence imposed by the Judicial Branch does little to deter people generally from engaging in such conduct, if they believe they are protecting their countries from enemies identified by their own Commander in Chief,” the attorneys wrote in the memo.
Immersed in Russian and far-right propaganda
The New York Times reports that Stein’s attorneys have argued that Stein’s believed 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. Stein’s attorneys noted that during the 2016 campaign, all three men read and shared Russian propaganda on their Facebook feed designed to sow discord in the U.S. political system.
Attorney Jim Pratt told the judge that Stein, for years, had been immersed in right-wing media, far-right social postings, and that he was an avid follower of right-wing commentators – all of whom, Pratt argued, normalized hate.
Judge Melgren was skeptical, telling Pratt: “Millions of people listen to this stuff, whether it comes from the left or the right.”
Melgren sentenced Stein to 30 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. He sentenced Allen and Wright to 25 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. Those sentences will run concurrently. Wright also got an additional year to be served consecutively for lying to law enforcement, bringing his total sentence to 26 years.
The judge told the three men that the planned attack was worse than the Oklahoma City bombing because the Garden City plot was motivated by hatreds of race, religion and national origin.
The three men’s terrorist plot was foiled when Dan Day, a member of the far-right militia, tipped off authorities to escalating threats of violence. He testified at the men’s trial last year that Stein started recruiting others to kill Muslim immigrants after the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
The Times notes that recordings played by the prosecutors for jurors last April portrayed a damning picture of a splinter group of the militia Kansas Security Force that came to be known as “the Crusaders.”
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in a news release called the sentences “a significant victory against hate crimes and domestic terrorism.”
“These defendants planned to ruthlessly bomb an apartment complex and kill innocent people, simply because of who they are and how they worship,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
Last Thursday, a day before the Kansas sentencing, two members of an Illinois far-right militia known as the White Rabbits pleaded guilty in the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque, admitting they hoped the attack would scare Muslims into leaving the United States.
No one was injured in that attack.
