Ex Congressional Candidate Admits To Mosque Firebombing Plot

A former candidate for the 4th Congressional District of Tennessee has earned himself another strange claim to fame. Robert Rankin Doggart stands accused of plotting an attack against a Muslim community in Upstate New York, and has been charged with one count of interstate communication threats, which may carry a 5 year prison sentence. The community itself has been accused of being a terrorist training camp by pundits like Sean Hannity.

Most of the evidence against him was derived from a FBI wiretap of his cell phone; though the names of who he was communicating with have yet to be identified, he apparently tried to recruit South Carolina militia members. The plan involved burning down a mosque, a cafeteria, and a school, and his wiretapped communications include statements such as: “We will be cruel to them. And we will burn down their buildings (and) if anyone attempts to, uh, harm us in any way, our stand gunner will take them down from 350 yards away.” and “We’re gonna be carrying an M4 with 500 rounds of ammunition, light armor piercing. A pistol with three extra magazines, and a machete. And if it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds.”

Doggart has since plead guilty to the charges, and has admitted his culpability in the plot. Although recently a federal judge scuttled the plea, and has asked that the attorneys who worked out the plea to prove that Doggart’s plan was a “true threat.”

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