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Two Californian men who authorities say amassed an arsenal of firearms and homemade bombs were indicted on Thursday over alleged plans to attack targets associated with Democrats.
Ian Benjamin Rogers, 45, of Napa, and Jarrod Copeland, 37, of Vallejo, have been charged in federal court with conspiracy to destroy the Democratic headquarters in Sacramento with incendiary devices. Their targets have also reportedly included the governor’s mansion and the Twitter and Facebook offices in San Francisco.
The men began planning attacks after former President Donald Trump was defeated in the 2020 election by asking for help from an anti-government militia, investigators said in an unsealed indictment on Thursday. Authorities believe the two men are linked to the Three Percentages, a far-right militant group whose members were implicated in the Jan.6 attack on Capitol Hill.
According to a detention memo for Copeland, the men also sought help from the Proud Boys, the violent neo-fascist group also with several members indicted in the attack on the Capitol.
Rogers and Copeland apparently understood that they would be viewed as national terrorists for carrying out the attacks, according to government documents filed in the case, but they hoped the attacks would spark a “movement” to overthrow the US government. In the detention note, investigators say the men “talked about writing a manifesto (which it seems they never did) to explain their purpose.”
Their planning continued even after the attack on January 6, with Rogers telling Copeland about an encrypted messaging app on January 11: “I want to blow up a Democratic building,” the indictment says. .
While the case is not directly related to the Capitol uprising, it highlights the willingness of federal law enforcement following the attack to tackle domestic violent extremism, an issue the President Joe Biden, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have raised top priority.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair said in a declaration On Thursday, the agency’s “highest priority remained to prevent terrorist attacks before they occurred, including local plots by violent national extremists.”
Rogers, whose social media shows he is an enthusiastic Trump supporter, has been in custody since his Jan.15 arrest and is in the process of being held on $ 5 million bail. The FBI arrested Copeland in Sacramento on Wednesday.
A search of Rogers’ home in January uncovered between 45 and 50 firearms, including at least three fully automatic weapons, thousands of cartridges and five fully operational homemade bombs, investigators said. They also discovered a Three Percenters sticker and a “white privilege card”.
Seemingly angered by Trump’s electoral defeat, Rogers and Copeland began planning attacks on several encrypted messaging apps in November 2020. That’s when Rogers allegedly told Copeland he would “hit the enemy. in the mouth ”by using Molotov cocktails and gasoline to attack targets associated with Democrats, including the governor’s mansion and the Democratic headquarters building in Sacramento, investigators said.
On November 25, according to the indictment, the two men were actively trying to recruit other people to join them.
Through one of the apps in late December 2020, Copeland told Rogers he had contacted a group of anti-government militias to seek support for their “movement.”
On January 4, according to the memo on Copeland’s detention, Rogers told him, “We need help though and I don’t know how to get more people involved. Copeland responded, “Proud boys and 3%” and “I emailed proud boys,” investigators say, adding that agents discovered a URL in the internet history on the laptop. of Copeland who appeared to show he had completed and submitted a form about the Proud Boys. ‘on or around December 28.
Four days after the attack on Capitol Hill on Jan. 10, the criminal complaint against Rogers said, he told Copeland, “We can attack Twitter and the Democrats easily right now are burning they are [sic] shit.
The next day, according to the indictment, Rogers told Copeland, “I want to blow up a bad Democratic building.”
They then agreed on their goals, according to the indictment, with Rogers suggesting they attack the Democratic headquarters in Sacramento first. Copeland replied, “Plan an attack,” investigators said.
According to the indictment, Rogers also told Copeland to prepare for “war” after January 20, the inauguration day of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Four days later, the FBI arrested Rogers and discovered the cache of firearms and homemade bombs in his house. When Copeland learned of Roger’s arrest, he immediately contacted a militia group to which they both belonged.
One of the militia leaders advised Copeland to switch to a new communications platform and cut all communications with Rogers after the latter was arrested, the indictment says. When FBI agents seized Copeland’s electronics on January 17, the indictment says Copeland’s messages with Rogers were missing.
Rogers and Copeland are both charged with conspiracy to destroy by fire or explosives a building used or having affected interstate commerce. Rogers is also charged with weapons violations, including one count of possession of unregistered destructive devices and three counts of possession of machine guns. Copeland is accused of destroying files for deleting his messages with Rogers.
Lawyers for the men could not be reached for comment Friday morning, but Rogers’ attorney told the San Francisco Chronicle in January that Rogers did not pose a danger to the public and was not a member of Three Percenters.
If found guilty, the men face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a three-year supervised release sentence and a fine of $ 250,000 for the conspiracy charge. Rogers faces up to 10 more years in prison for weapons charges, and Copeland faces up to 20 years in prison for destroying evidence.
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