WEBVTT - An Officer and A Skinhead 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:07.280 Col Zone Media. 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:11.080 In February of twenty nineteen, a federal prosecutor in Maryland 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.880 made an unusual presentation to a magistrate judge in support 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.840 of pre trialed attention. Christopher Paul Hassen had just been 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.520 arrested on charges of possession of a firearm by an 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:26.759 unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance. It's kind 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.000 of a technicality. If you've been convicted of drug possession, 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:32.599 usually you'd have caught a felony and you can't own 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:36.640 a gun anyway. But he hadn't been, and he wasn't 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.360 and he owned those guns legally. Hassen was a fifty 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.680 year old married father of two and a lieutenant in 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.400 the United States Coast Guard with no criminal history to 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:50.080 speak of. He was also addicted to tramadol, an opioid 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.920 pain medication that he didn't have a prescription for pre 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.600 trial attention In a case like this seems a little excessive. 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.760 You could probably just let him go home home, make 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.720 him turn in his guns, and order weekly drug screenings 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.520 with pre trial services. But there was something else going 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:12.840 on here. His apartment was packed to the brim with guns, ammunition, 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:18.039 and tactical gear, and on his computer they found mass 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:25.280 shooter manifestos, terrorism manuals, and a list of names. I'm 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:50.160 Molly Conger, and this is weird, little guys. I thought 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.600 we could use something a little lighter this week after 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.600 last week's episode. I know it was a pretty dark 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.000 one for me to research and write, and I saw 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.480 some feedback from listeners who said it ruined their day. 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:05.920 So fair enough, So nobody dies this week, nobody has 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.280 a hard drive full of child sexual abuse material, nobody 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.400 gets shot or raped. There's barely even any hate crimes. 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.320 It wasn't easy to find a story like that in 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:18.400 my mental rolodex, but I. 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:19.560 Thought you guys deserved a break. 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:25.480 Now, I will admit, upon further reflection, this whole story 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.880 isn't exactly as funny as my spotty memory had me 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:32.160 thinking when I started. I think my own recollection of 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.959 this being a silly little legal mishap was heavily colored 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:38.799 by my own mental state back in twenty twenty when 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.040 I drove to Maryland to watch this sentencing hearing. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.000 When I drove up to the Federal. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:46.560 Courthouse in green Belt, Maryland to see Hassen sentencing hearing 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.480 on January thirty first, twenty twenty. It's actually my second 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.320 trip up to that courthouse that month. Just a week earlier, 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.240 i'd been in another courtroom in that massive building for 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.920 a detention hearing in another case, three members of the 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.480 neo Nazi paramilitary group the Base had just been arrested. 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.160 The government alleged they'd been picked up just days before 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.639 they could carry out a plan to open fire into 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.720 a large crowd of heavily armed gun owners in the 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.680 hopes that the chaos would result in mass casualties. The 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.600 event they were targeting was one that I had attended 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.720 as a journalist. It's the annual gun lobby Day in Richmond, Virginia, 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:29.320 our state capital. The idea that we'd perhaps just by 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.800 the skin of our teeth, avoided being massacred in a 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.359 confused crossfire left. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:35.920 Me feeling a little queasy. 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.080 I'm not too proud to admit that I was a 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.720 little on edge at that detention hearing. I dug out 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.120 my old notebook this weekend to try to remember what 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:46.839 was going on back then, to sort of get back 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.600 into that headspace and remind myself of what was going 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:53.200 on in these cases. And apparently I did take notes 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.480 pretty good ones. But my only memories of that day 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.640 are how clean the bathrooms were, that I walked out 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.200 of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck in my tights, 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.360 and the look on that FBI agent's face when I 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:13.600 grabbed his phone. So it was a small courtroom. It 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:15.920 was just a hearing with a magistrate judge on detention, 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.640 and normally in court, I try to sit by myself 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.560 because I like to sit with my legs sort of 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.039 fold it up underneath me because my feet don't reach 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.120 the floor. And I have my huge hardcover spiral notebook 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:29.920 open in my lap and I sort of hunch over 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:31.920 it like a little gremlin while I take my notes. 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.440 But it was crowded, so I had to sit next 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.800 to some federal agent or another, and he was having 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.480 the damnedest time trying to figure out how to turn 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.440 off his iPhone. He just kept locking and unlocking it, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.560 locking it and unlocking it, and he couldn't figure out 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.520 why wouldn't turn off? And you know, my general preference 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:53.600 to never have a conversation with a cop if I 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.880 can help it is apparently trumped by my inability to 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.599 sit idly by while someone is very busy being wrong, 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.039 and I remember sitting there trying to explain to him 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.599 that you have to hold down the volume button and 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.760 the lock button at the same time until it turns off. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:12.599 It's not that complicated. I was trying to explain it. 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.719 He just kept locking it, unlocking it, turned the volume 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:16.800 up and down and locking it, unlocking it, and he. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:17.680 Couldn't turn it off. 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:20.920 So god knows what came over me, But I just 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.159 I reached over and I did it myself, and you 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:26.760 would have thought I grabbed his gun. 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:27.440 You know. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.960 She just looked scandalized. But I was just trying to 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:35.520 be helpful. You know, I'm a helpful girl. But this 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:39.320 isn't a story about Patrick Matthews, Brian Lemley, and William Bilbrow. 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.560 Of course, that hearing has nothing really at all to 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.120 do with Christopher Hassen. All that to say, it was 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.480 my second time that month driving the nearly three hours 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.240 to Marilyn to sit on a bench in an unfamiliar courtroom, 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.080 and by the time I was there the second time, 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:59.240 I was really ruminating on that apparently very nearly successful 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.920 plot that probably would have claimed my own life among 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.680 the thousands would have been shot or trampled if Matthews, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.039 Lemley and Bilbro had been successful. 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:09.520 And it had been a busy week in between. 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:13.240 Overall, I sat through an eight hour city council annual 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:15.880 retreat and went to a school board budget meeting. You know, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.440 I just can't resist a municipal government meeting. And the 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.000 pissant Nazi cry baby who'd spent years threatening me finally 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.400 got arrested in a pre dawn raid by the FBI, 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:26.920 but it was for. 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.560 Something totally unrelated. 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:31.880 And I'd put damn near a thousand miles on my 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.480 car driving back and forth to this courthouse, even though 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.000 I had no real plan for how he's going to 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.640 afford to replace my tires. I was having a weird week. 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:43.560 So by the time I was reading this government and 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.839 sentencing memo in the hass in case, I was just 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.920 looking for a recent to laugh, you know, And like 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.960 I said, nobody died, it's safe to giggle a little. 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:55.320 I'm not saying the whole story as a joke, but 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.280 you have to find levity where you can, and where 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.200 would I even be with a little gallows hue, And 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.200 all the better when the would be hangman is shackled 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:04.880 at the ankles. 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:06.680 But like I. 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.240 Said, this is a story about Christopher Hassen, not me, 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.280 and Christopher Hassen may never have been caught at all 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:20.239 if he just kept his extracurricular interests at home. Evidence 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.640 produced in this case includes hundreds of pages of logs 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:28.160 of his computer activity, mostly computer activity he was engaged 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:33.120 in network. Generally speaking, I'm opposed to the idea of 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.960 your employer monitoring your Internet history. If you're getting your 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:38.760 work done, what difference does it make if you take 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.400 some breaks during the day to look at Reddit or 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.800 do a little online shopping, you know. But Hassen worked 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.360 for the government. He was using a government computer on 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:54.280 a government Internet connection to look at extremist content online. 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.240 And honestly, I have no idea what his day to 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:01.840 day workplace responsibilities could possibly have been, because based on 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:06.240 these Internet history logs, he was spending hours and hours 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:11.920 almost every day looking at things that weren't work And again, 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.760 in another context, I support time theft, especially from the government, 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.480 you know, rock on, but he wasn't scrolling social media. 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.360 The investigation began in November of twenty eighteen. Something he 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.400 did on his work computers set off an internal flag. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.880 They never say exactly what it was that ended up 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:37.400 getting him flagged. The Coastguard's Internal Threat Assessment report covers 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.200 his Internet activity from July of twenty sixteen through his 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.920 arrest in February twenty nineteen, but that report was created retroactively. 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.560 They didn't actually start monitoring him until something happened in 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.080 November twenty eighteen. 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.520 And looking at this report, I. 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.360 Can't explain why nothing's set off an alarm in the 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:03.000 IT office before that, but that's what it says, so 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:05.080 I guess we just have to take it as written. 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:08.600 Throughout the report, you can see that. 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.920 He was emailing links and PDFs to himself between his 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:17.320 personal and work email addresses. I don't know why he 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.079 was doing that. I wonder if maybe he couldn't access 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.240 his personal email at work, and he couldn't access his 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.600 work email at home, and he wanted to be able 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.000 to pick up where he left off in either location. So, 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.040 for example, in the late evening hours of June seventh, 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:35.640 twenty seventeen, he sent himself five emails from his personal 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:40.000 email address to his work email address, and each email 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.480 had an attachment. He was checking out the Anarchist Cookbook, 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:48.400 you know, a classic. He sent himself a PDF called 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:54.600 US Army Improvised Munition's Handbook and these next three well, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.520 I think you will get why I'm confused. He didn't 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.520 get flagged until a year later, because does he emailed 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:05.240 himself PDFs called emailing a non how to make semtechs 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:11.640 in one called home Workshop Explosives by Uncle Fester, and 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:16.920 a document just called the Terrorist's Handbook, which is mostly 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.880 instructions on how to make IEDs. I guess he was 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.640 smart enough to understand that he shouldn't download these at work, 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.280 so he emailed them to himself so he could read 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:33.160 them there. Semtex is a plastic explosive originally developed by 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.359 the Czech military that has become quite popular with terrorists. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.360 And Uncle Fester is a seventy five year old man 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:44.760 named Stephen Preisler who was arrested last year in Wisconsin 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:50.120 for making meth. In case you were wondering, I spent 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.720 hours combing through these reports trying to make some sense 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.320 of them. And the only thing I can figure that 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:01.120 really changed in November of twenty eighteen that may have 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.920 triggered his employer to start looking at his computer activity 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:10.040 was a sudden intensification of his interest in Russia, and 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.760 this wasn't entirely new. The report shows activity going back 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:16.560 to early twenty seventeen for searches like Russian far right 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.880 Russian Nationalists immigrate to Russia. In June of twenty seventeen, 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.920 he spent an entire workday accessing what the report calls 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:28.840 quote extensive pro Russian and neo fascist content end quote. 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:34.160 He searched for things like national Bolshevism and Fourth Political Theory, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.240 which is the title of a book by Alexander Dugan 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.200 that was a favorite of American neo Nazi Matthew Heinbach. 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.720 In March of twenty eighteen, he spent another full workday 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.960 clicking around websites with pro Russian neo fascist content, but 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.240 none of that triggered any kind of internal alarm on 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:55.200 his account. The activity logs for November twenty eighteen, though, 0:11:55.880 --> 0:12:00.600 show his first searches for and visits to sput News 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:05.200 and RT, which are Russian state run media sites. This 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.319 is another one of those questions we're just not going 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.160 to get an answer to. But my gut reaction to 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.520 the way those things coincide is that maybe there was 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:18.120 an automatic flag placed on some particular website, and maybe 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:22.320 it was a website that is Russian state on media, 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.280 or maybe somebody at work just saw him dicking around 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.760 at his desk and reported him. We'll never know, but 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.520 apparently there is no internal monitoring system that automatically reports 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.800 you to the Coastguard for being on Reddit all day, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.800 every day, so browse away, I guess. The Coastguard's one 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.120 hundred and twenty page internal Threat Assessment report outlining the 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.680 concerning computer activity over that two and a half year period, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.400 starts out with a summary of his findings, which includes 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:52.479 this incredible paragraph. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:58.320 Subject's most frequently visited website from twenty seventeen to twenty 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.719 nineteen was the men Going their Own Way migtoe subreddit 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:06.640 at www dot reddit dot com, to which subject made 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.439 tens of thousands of total URL visits over a two 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.920 plus year period. Will at the MiG toast subreddit, subject 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:17.319 routinely access gender based extremist content that promoted discrimination of 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.520 women or hatred towards women on a daily basis. Due 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.880 to the persistence of the behavior, subject's routine daily activity 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.360 in browsing the MiG toast subreddit is not included in 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:27.960 this chronology of activity. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.360 So we don't know why they started looking, but they did. 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.480 Starting in November of twenty eighteen, the Coastguard started monitoring 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.920 his workplace computer activity in real time. They were logging 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:42.920 his keystrokes. 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:44.640 They set up a hidden. 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.680 Camera near his desk to record him during the day, 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.199 and then they started reporting their findings to the FBI, 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:56.080 and by January the FBI was worried too. They got 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.840 warrants for his email accounts, a warrant for his historical 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:03.079 cell location data, and placed a GPS tracker on his car. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.520 They installed a pole camera outside his home, They searched 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.840 his desk at work, and on February fifteenth, twenty nineteen, 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.800 they arrested him in the parking garage outside of Coast 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:19.920 Guard headquarters in Washington, d C. When he appeared in 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.840 front of a magistrate judge a week later, the government 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.120 was really only talking about these charges for possession of 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.600 the tramadol that they found in his desk and the 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.880 charge for possessing the firearm while being an unlawful user 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.000 of a controlled substance. That is, as the judge noted, 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.600 a pretty unremarkable charge. That's not really the kind of 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.880 crime that warrants real time surveillance, secret cameras, parking lot 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:49.800 ambush arrests, and pre trialed attention. But with that real 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.800 time access to his computer activity at work, the investigators 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:58.760 saw what they interpreted as a shift. He'd spent years 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:05.120 accumulating knowledge and supplies, reading manifestos, buying guns, and now 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:10.920 it seemed like he was preparing for something. So when 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.560 an FBI agent writes out an affidavit in support of 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.600 a search warrant, he has to tell the judge what 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:21.040 he's looking for and why he needs probable cause. 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:22.440 Obviously you know that one. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.480 But what makes probable cause depends on what you're investigating. 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.600 What crime do you think you're going to find evidence 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:32.480 of and why do you think you're going to find 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.400 it there? Well, Hassena was charged with having a gun 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.640 and a pill problem, So maybe that's what they wrote 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.080 down on the affidavit, right, something about. 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.280 The drugs now. 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.320 According to a defense motion to suppress the evidence sees 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:54.160 pursuant to those searches, which was unsuccessful. Quote Agent Harrison 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.000 asserted he had probable cause to believe the warrants would 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.800 produce evidence of violations of eighteen usc V. Section one 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.840 one one one murder in federal jurisdictions one one one 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.400 four murder or attempted murder of officers or employees of 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:13.440 the United States, three five to one, assassination of Cabinet secretaries, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.680 members of Congress, or Supreme Court justices, and three seven 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:23.440 to one conspiracy to commit the foregoing crimes. That is 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.400 not what he was charged with. The government's motion for 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.800 detention calls the charges that they actually filed that drug 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:35.480 stuff quote the tip of the iceberg. And they opened 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:40.440 their memo with a pretty bold statement, writing, the defendant 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.680 is a domestic terrorist bent on committing acts dangerous to 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:49.480 human life that are intended to affect government conduct. And 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.800 so instead of sending the defendant on his way with 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.760 court orders to behave himself until his trial, the government 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.960 said there is absolutely no way to assure the safety 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.720 of the community except to keep him in custody. And 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.800 this is where it becomes clear that this case was 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:11.320 never about pain pills. On June second, twenty seventeen, Christopher 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:16.240 Hassen wrote, then deleted an email draft. He never sent 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.359 this to anyone. It just stayed there in his recoverable 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.520 deleted drafts folder for a year and a half. 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:30.280 Dear friends, maybe that's a bit of a misnomer. Acquaintance 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.239 is more likely. Hope this finds you well. I am 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.000 dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.040 on the earth. I think a plague would be most successful. 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.880 But how do I acquire the needed Spanish flu, bachulism, anthrax? 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.600 Not sure yet, but we'll find something interesting. Idea the 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.840 other day. Start with biological attacks followed by attack on 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.520 food supply. Have to research this. Two pronged attacks seems 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:57.120 it might be more successful. Institute a bombing sniper campaign. 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.800 What can I do? I will not do. Nothing seems 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.400 inevitable that we are doomed. I don't think I can 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.720 cause complete destruction on my own. However, if I could 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.960 enlist the unwitting help of another power, country would be best? 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:11.719 Who and how to provoke? 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.119 The letter continues, outlining a plan to purchase land in 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.040 a remote area, noting that he needs to get off 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.359 drugs to clear his mind to plan this attack, and 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.639 he needs to start stockpiling food and supplies at multiple 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:29.000 hidden locations. 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:31.640 He writes that he needs to quote. 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.480 Have a serious look end quote at what kinds of 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:41.640 targets would be most effective, speculating that doctors, professors, politicians, judges, 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.200 and leftists in general would be a great place to start. 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.399 He wants to provoke unrest and then target both sides 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.520 of it to exacerbate tension and maximize casualties, to provoke 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.400 the government to overreact to escalate the violence, and once 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.439 major unrest is underway, he plans to dress as a 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:04.399 cop and execute looters. Please send me your violence that 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:08.000 I may unleash it onto their heads. Guide my hate 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.240 to make a lasting impression on this world. 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.199 So be it, he writes. 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:20.400 The email is signed very respectfully, Lieutenant Christopher P. Hassen, 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:25.919 National Security Cutter Acquisition. Three months later, in September of 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:31.320 twenty seventeen, drafted another letter. This one has a clear recipient, 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.040 although there is no concrete proof he ever mailed it. 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.640 On September fifth, he did a little online shopping at work. 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.800 He purchased eleven books from Amazon, mostly those by Life 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:48.400 Long neo Nazi activist Harold Covington. Covington is a man 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.159 who deserves his own episode. He was a member of 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.560 the American Nazi Party in his youth and was discharged 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:56.879 from the US Army in nineteen seventy three after just 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:01.760 two years. Accounts very a little bit here. One nineteen 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.560 to eighty New York Times article says he quote accepted 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.359 an early honorable discharge after getting into a tavern brawl 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:14.240 with blacks end quote. I didn't realize we were still 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.840 saying that in nineteen eighty. I don't really care for 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.399 that New York Times. But the real problem here is 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.560 that the paper was accepting Covington's own account of things. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.359 That was his version of why he wasn't in the 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.040 army anymore. He was actually pushed out of the army 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.000 because of his habit of handing out neo Nazi pamphlets 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:35.679 to his fellow soldiers. He also has the distinction of 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.800 being the only man I've ever heard of who was 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:40.600 deported from Rhodesia for. 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.119 Being too racist. 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:47.280 Our guy, Frank Sweeney from a few weeks ago, was 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.480 deported from Rhodesia for stabbing a guy, but there was 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:52.919 no indication they had any problem with the Nazi stuff. 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.680 I don't want to spoil too much now. We will 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.200 definitely have to cover Harold Covington eventually. I want to 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:03.040 at least make it clear why it's a little troubling 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.120 to be filling your bookshelves with his work. So it's 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:11.040 September twenty seventeen. Hassen is buying a bunch of Covington's novels. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.879 He saves a copy of Covington's Northwest Front Handbook to 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.960 his Google Drive account, and he's spending some time on 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:23.800 Covington's website learning about his idea for the Northwest Territorial Imperative. 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.720 This is the idea that American white supremacists should all 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.760 move out to the Northwest and settle in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:36.160 and Montana and start taking control of local governments, eventually 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:40.560 turning the entire region into a white ethno state. Covington 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:43.159 didn't invent the idea, of course, but he was one 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.479 of its biggest boosters. He founded the Northwest Front and 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:48.760 wrote a bunch of books about the topic to try 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.360 and make it a reality. After reading up on Covington 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.760 and the Northwest Imperative, Hassen looked at some areas in 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.439 Washington and Idaho on Google Maps. Then he did a 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:05.880 bing so for is Harold Covington. FBI informant has since 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:08.080 spent most of the next work day browsing Reddit and 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:10.760 as he did every day, and doing a little research 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:16.119 on Christian identity. It's a twisted theology that has really 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:18.920 almost nothing to do with the Christianity you're familiar with. 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:22.960 It preaches that white Europeans are God's true chosen people. 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:27.359 Racial purity is valued above all else. Racial mixing is 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.600 a violation of God's law. Christian identity believers yearn for 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.480 a white Ethno state, and some of them are willing 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:38.520 to kill for it. It was Richard Butler's devotion to 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.160 Christian identity that led him to found the Aryan Nations 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.800 and establish a large Nazi compound outside of Kurdalene, Idaho. 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:48.840 Butler's dedication to establishing a sovereign Aryan territory in the 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:52.320 Pacific Northwest is what inspired Harold Covington to name the 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:56.280 plan outlined in his Northwest Front Handbook after him calling 0:22:56.320 --> 0:23:00.680 it the Butler Plan. That's something Hassen probably learned when 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:03.399 he conducted a being search at his work computer for 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:09.520 the Butler Plan after spending all afternoon reading about Christian identity. 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:10.280 He must not have. 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:13.680 Been totally sold on Christian identity, though, because records show 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:15.880 he also sent an email that same week to someone 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.960 at the Asatru foc Assembly. Far from the harmless, if 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:24.000 sometimes questionable practice of paganism by people of European heritage 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:26.720 who are trying to connect with their ancestral ways of 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.360 life or whatever they believe that might be. The Assatru 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:34.800 Focussembly is an explicitly white nationalist organization, and they get 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:37.800 heavy criticism from their fellow Pagans for the racial hatred 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:42.000 that's built into its founding doctrines. But Hassen wrote to 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.080 someone at the FOCU assembly asking if they had any 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:47.440 members in his local area, and he expressed a willingness 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.280 to drive up to two hundred miles to participate in 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:54.680 group meetings. He ends the email, signing off not by 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:58.879 saying you know sincerely, or best wishes or thank you, 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.800 or some normal way of ending an email, but instead 0:24:02.800 --> 0:24:09.280 he writes fourteen words Chris Hassen. The fourteen words refers 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:12.600 to the slogan coined by David Lane, the neo Nazi 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:15.840 domestic terrorist who died in prison for his role in 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:20.920