2008 Barack Obama assassination scare in Denver

The Barack Obama assassination scare in Denver refers to an alleged plot by Shawn Robert Adolf, Tharin Robert Gartrell and Nathan Dwaine Johnson to assassinate Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, then the 2008 Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

presidential nominee. The trio allegedly planned to shoot Senator Obama with a high-powered rifle during the Democratic National Convention

2008 Democratic National Convention

The United States 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform and officially nominated its candidates for President and Vice President of the United States. The convention was held in Denver,...

in Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

.

The alleged motive for the attempted assassination was a white supremacist belief that an African American should not be elected President of the United States. Gartrell was arrested August 24, 2008, and found to be in possession of rifles and other weaponry; Adolf and Johnson were arrested shortly thereafter. In a televised interview after his arrest, Johnson identified Adolf as the man who allegedly hatched the assassination plot and planned to be the shooter.

Although their suspected white supremacist affiliations led federal authorities to investigate possible ties to a larger group, authorities later downplayed the trio as drug addicts who had little chance of actually carrying out the plot. The three men were charged with drug and weapons charges, but did not face federal charges of threatening a presidential candidate.

Investigation and arrests

Tharin Robert Gartrell, 28; his cousin Shawn Robert Adolf, 33; and their friend Nathan Dwaine Johnson, 32, allegedly came to Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

in August 2008 specifically to kill then-Senator

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

Barack Obama

at the Democratic National Convention

2008 Democratic National Convention

. The men came to Denver before Obama arrived there, and rented a room at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center

Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center

The Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center is a 489 ft tall skyscraper in Denver, Colorado. It was constructed from 2003 to 2005 and has 38 floors. It is the 8th tallest building in Denver.-References:***...

, where they mistakenly believed Obama was staying (in fact, Obama was staying at another Denver hotel). Federal authorities began an investigation into the trio after they made alleged racist threats against Obama while taking methamphetamine in the hotel room. A woman present for their conversation, who was not identified by a police affidavit, told Colorado State Patrol

Colorado State Patrol

The Colorado State Patrol , based in Lakewood, Colorado, is a division of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, and is one of the official state police agencies of Colorado, along with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and several smaller state agencies...

officers they "could not believe how close he was to becoming President". She claimed they spoke about killing the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, and that Adolf allegedly said, "No nigger should ever live in the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

." A woman in the group said it would be a "suicide mission", and it would be best done by hiding a gun inside a hollowed-out television video camera, a method used in the 1992 Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner

Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...

movie, The Bodyguard
The Bodyguard
The Bodyguard is a 1992 American romantic-thriller film starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Costner stars as a former Secret Service Agent turned bodyguard who is hired to protect Houston's character, a music star, from an unknown stalker. Lawrence Kasdan wrote the film in the 1970s,...

. Security had already been increased for Obama due to low-grade fears of possible assassination attempts against the first African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

major party presidential candidate. Authorities did not identify the woman who informed on the trio, nor did they disclose whether she was charged with a crime.

Gartrell was driving to buy cigarettes when he was arrested at about 1:30 a.m. on August 24. Police in Aurora, Colorado

Aurora, Colorado

City of Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality spanning Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties in Colorado. Aurora is an eastern suburb of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area . The city is the third most populous city in the Colorado and the 56th most populous city in the...

, a suburb east of Denver, pulled over his rented 2008 blue Dodge Ram

Dodge Ram

The Dodge Ram is a full-size pickup truck manufactured by the Chrysler Group LLC. As of late 2010, it has been sold under the Ram Trucks brand. Previously, Ram was part of the Dodge lineup of light trucks...

truck, which was swerving erratically. Police found a Ruger Model M77

Ruger M77

The Ruger M77 is a bolt-action rifle produced by Sturm, Ruger & Company. It was designed by Jim Sullivan during his three years with Ruger. The rifle features a traditional Mauser-style two-lugged bolt with a claw extractor.- Design and features :...

Mark II 22-250 bolt-action rifle with an attached scope and bipod, and a Remington

Remington Arms

Remington Arms Company, Inc. was founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, as E. Remington and Sons. It is the oldest company in the United States which still makes its original product, and is the oldest continuously operating manufacturer in North America. It is the only U.S....

Model 721 270 bolt-action rifle with an attached hunting scope. One of the rifles was fitted with a silencer. Police also found two wigs, three fake IDs, camouflage clothing, a bulletproof vest, two walkie-talkies and 4.4 grams of what appeared to be methamphetamine in the truck. The truck contained enough drug-making equipment for the vehicle to be considered "a mobile lab". At least one of the rifles had been reported stolen. Gartrell was under the influence of methamphetamine when arrested. He was found to be driving on a suspended license, and was carrying a false Colorado identification card with a Centennial, Colorado

Centennial, Colorado

The city of Centennial is a Home Rule City located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States, and part of the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area. The city was to have a total population of 100,377 in 2010 census. Centennial is the tenth-most populous municipality in the state of Colorado and its...

address. Gartrell was using crutches at the time of his arrest.

Gartrell told an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...

that the weapons belonged to his cousin Adolf, and he led police to the hotels where Adolf and Johnson were staying. Johnson was arrested at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center, at about 4:30 a.m. Adolf was arrested at the Cherry Creek Hotel in Glendale

Glendale, Colorado

The city of Glendale is a Home Rule Municipality located in an exclave of Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The population was 4,547 at the 2000 census. The entire city is surrounded on all sides by the City and County of Denver. Therefore, as a municipal entity, it is also an enclave...

at about 5 a.m. Adolf jumped out of a sixth-story hotel window when police arrived. He fell four stories onto the second-floor roof of the hotel kitchen, then jumped again onto the ground around the hotel. He broke his ankle in the fall, but tried to run before police found him a short distance away. Adolf, who was hospitalized shortly after his arrest, was wearing body armor when police apprehended him. He told police this was because "someone wanted to shoot him". Like Gartrell, Johnson and Adolf were found to be under the influence of methamphetamine during their arrests. During interviews with police, both men made racist statements similar to those allegedly made in their earlier hotel room discussions.

Johnson implicates Adolf

Johnson told the United States Secret Service

United States Secret Service

The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

he rented the Hyatt hotel room at Adolf's request and that he believed "without a doubt" that Adolf came to Denver to kill Obama. According to a police affidavit, "Johnson said the only reason for such killing would be because Obama is black." During an August 25 interview with KCNC-TV

KCNC-TV

KCNC-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated station television station in Denver, Colorado, owned by CBS Television Stations, Inc. KCNC broadcasts on UHF channel 35 from Lookout Mountain near Golden, Colorado.- Digital programming :...

, a CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

owned-and-operated television station in Denver, Johnson first denied being personally involved with the plot and, when asked whether he felt the men had serious plans to go through with the assassination, he said, "Looking back at it, I don't want to say yes, but I don't want to say no." Eventually, however, he admitted the other two men had planned a killing when he said, "Yeah, they were here to do that, to assassinate him ... it's about as hard for me to swallow as it is for you to understand." Johnson said the plan was for Adolf to, "shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a [rifle] sighted at 750 yards". Johnson said the shooting was to take place during Obama's acceptance speech on August 28 at the Democratic National Convention

2008 Democratic National Convention

in INVESCO Field at Mile High

INVESCO Field at Mile High

Sports Authority Field at Mile High, previously known as Invesco Field at Mile High, and commonly known as Mile High, is a multi-purpose stadium, in Denver, Colorado. It replaced the identically sized, but commercially obsolete Mile High Stadium in 2001...

. Johnson told the station, "He don't belong in political office. Blacks don't belong in political office. He ought to be shot." Johnson said Adolf previously made comments about killing any African American who ran for president: "He made a comment in the past. I can't honestly tell you how long ago in the past, that he didn't believe a black should be the leader of this country." According to Johnson, Adolf said he was already wanted for other crimes, so it "wouldn't matter if he killed Obama". Johnson also claimed Adolf said he would never be taken alive and wanted to "go down in a blaze of glory". Law enforcement sources told KCNC-TV that one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative." Johnson said Gartrell came to Denver to help Adolf execute the plan, and Gartrell later admitted to police that in talking about Obama, they referred to "shooting on a grassy knoll," a reference to the assassination

John F. Kennedy assassination

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

of President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

. An arrest warrant read, "Adolf said that he wanted to kill Obama and additionally stated that he would specifically use a sniper rifle and high powered scope, and find high ground to set up and shoot Obama." However, Johnson also told the reporter he came to the conclusion that there was assassination plot only after being questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

multiple times, adding, “I told them I had no idea there was a plot, a plan, a conspiracy or anything like that ... When the feds came and laid out everything on the table and how it looked, I was in agreement that they could have been up here to do something like that." Johnson later rejected additional media interview requests.

Assessment of threat

FBI Special Agent

Special agent

Special agent is usually the title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government. An agent is a worker for any federal agency, and a secret agent is one who works for an intelligence agency....

Robert Sawyer initially said there was probable cause to believe the trio were conspiring to kill Obama, based on searches of their hotel rooms and cars. However, United States Attorney

United States Attorney

United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

Troy Eid

Troy A. Eid, a former United States Attorney now in private law practice with Greenberg Traurig LLP in Denver, CO, is the Chair of the Indian Law and Order Commission This all volunteer blue-ribbon advisory panel was created by the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 to recommend changes to the...

said the racist statements the suspects made following their arrests had not risen to the legal standard that would have allowed the filing of federal charges for threatening a presidential candidate, an offense that falls under the same statute as threatening the President of the United States

Threatening the President of the United States

Threatening the President of the United States is a class D felony under United States Code Title 18, Section 871. It consists of knowingly and willfully mailing or otherwise making "any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States"...

. Prosecutors also said they had insufficient evidence that they had the means to carry out a plot to kill Obama. Eid said the searches of the suspects' rooms and computers turned up no evidence of a plot or conspiracy. Eid and his aides said the decision not to press charges of threatening a presidential candidate was at least in part because they did not believe a jury would convict them based on the reliability of Johnson's testimony. Jeffrey Dorschner, Eid's spokesman, said a defense attorney “would tear him apart”. Although Eid would be accused of racism and political posturing for not seeking the charge, Eid said, "The 'political' thing to have done in this case, of course, would have been to charge all three defendants with making a threat against Obama and then quietly drop those charges later — expedient, Machiavellian and self-serving, but also illegal, unethical and immoral."

The Secret Service, ATF, FBI, a U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force

Joint Terrorism Task Force

A Joint Terrorism Task Force is a partnership between various U.S. law enforcement agencies that is charged with taking action against terrorism, which includes the investigation of crimes such as wire fraud and identity theft...

and the U.S. Attorney's office investigated the plot. Inconsistencies with the men's stories led investigators to downgrade the threat the men presented to Barack Obama. During a press conference on August 26, federal authorities said Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson had possessed little, if any, chance of actually assassinating Obama. Eid described the alleged plot as "more aspirational, perhaps, than operational", and said, "We're absolutely confident that the meth heads were not a true threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention or the people of Colorado." Officials did not believe the men had a clear path to hit the stage from outside the convention hall, and had little chance of getting to Obama outside the convention, especially since they were incorrect about which hotel Obama would be staying at. One FBI official described the trio as "just a couple of rednecks thinking out loud what they'd like to do". FBI officials said no additional precautions were planned in response to the alleged plot because security had already been high due to the prospect of threats from extremist groups. Secret Service protection for Obama began after the Senator received a death threat in 2007, marking the first time a candidate received such protection before being nominated. Obama and his campaign officials did not comment on the arrests, just as Obama had usually declined discussing death threats against him in the past since entering the presidential race.
Although officials downplayed the level of threat the trio presented to Obama, they said they planned further investigations into how a gang of supposedly small-time criminals collected such a massive arsenal. Authorities believed the men had at least some white supremacist

White supremacy

White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...

involvement, although experts at the Southern Poverty Law Center

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...

, which tracks the radical right

Radical Right

Radical Right is a generally pejorative term used to describe various political movements on the right that are conspiracist, attuned to anti-American or anti-Christian agents of foreign powers, and "politically radical." The term was first used by social scientists in the 1950s regarding small...

, said no evidence existed linking any of them to a white supremacist group. Nevertheless, the possible connections prompted FBI officials, who originally considered the threat "relatively minor", to develop stronger concerns about whether the motives from the three plotters could have been connected to a larger organization. The FBI stated that with an African American candidate for President, "you are certainly going to look at the general threat picture against any candidate and factor in the threats posed by those who preach hate and racism."

Dr. William Boone, political science professor at Clark Atlanta University

Clark Atlanta University

Clark Atlanta University is a private, historically black university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was formed in 1988 with the consolidation of Clark College and Atlanta University...

, said drug influence should not have been cause for prosecutors to dismiss the threat, and that drugs have historically caused criminals to follow through with such crimes and schemes. Boone said, "The whole idea of just dismissing it as not credible is incredible. ... It’s surprising given the whole history of crime and drug use in the United States."

Histories of alleged plotters

After their arrest, law enforcement officials investigated whether Adolf, Gartrell and Johnson were linked to vandalism shootings that targeted at least two federal buildings in Denver two weeks prior to their arrest. Windows were shot at the U.S. Custom House and the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Station in Denver's downtown Federal District. Authorities were also studying whether a bullet recovered from a Hertz rental car shot on August 15 could have matched the guns seized from the men.

Adolf, a Greeley, Colorado

Greeley, Colorado

The City of Greeley is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Weld County, Colorado, United States. Greeley is located in the region known as Northern Colorado. Greeley is situated north-northeast of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. According to the...

resident, was the only one of the three alleged plotters with any prior history of violence. Adolf was arrested on May 14, 1997, for his involvement in a theft of $350,000-worth of construction equipment, materials and vehicles in Greeley. He served prison time starting in 1997 on drug-related charges, and faced two third-degree assault charges in 2001. At the time of his arrest for the alleged assassination plot, eight outstanding warrants had been issued for him in response various crimes committed around Colorado, including one for skipping out on a $1 million bond. He was on the most-wanted list of the Weld County, Colorado

Weld County, Colorado

As of the census of 2000, there were 180,936 people, 63,247 households, and 45,221 families residing in the county. The population density was 45 people per square mile . There were 66,194 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile...

sheriff's department for burglary, larceny, aggravated motor vehicle theft and other prior charges. Adolf possessed a handcuff key on one hand and a swastika ring on the other when he was arrested for the alleged assassination plot. His criminal history also included forgery, drug and weapon charges. Vicki Harbert, an investigator with the Weld County Sheriff's Department, had been pursuing Adolf since 2006 and feared he would eventually kill a police officer. Harbert said of Adolf after his 2008 arrest, "I've been a cop for 18 years and he was not your typical bad guy."

Tharin Gartrell is a professional club-music disc jockey, originally from Lincoln County, Nevada

Lincoln County, Nevada

Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 4,165. Its county seat is Pioche.-History:...

. He lived in Pioche, Nevada

Pioche, Nevada

-External links:*...

until the 1990s, when he moved to another rural Nevada town with his father, Carl "Flash" Gartrell, a journeyman ranch hand and heavy equipment operator. Carl Gartrell has a history of multiple drug- and alcohol-related arrests and, in August 2008, a warrant was issued for his arrest in Lincoln County. Tharin Gartrell, who had no known address at the time of his arrest, was run over by a truck as a child and, according to Lincoln County, Colorado

Lincoln County, Colorado

Lincoln County is the tenth most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 6,087 at U.S. Census 2000...

Sheriff Kerry Lee, "It was absolutely amazing that he wasn't hurt badly." Gartrell experienced significant disciplinary action problems in high school and was told he would have to enroll in an alternative school, but never did. Friends said Gartrell had been on probation for drugs and had not committed any crimes for several years, but fell off the wagon and started spending time with Adolf in mid-August 2008. Like Adolf, Gartrell and Johnson had a criminal history involving burglary, forgery, drug and weapon charges. Tharin is registered with the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

in Colorado.

Comparison to other cases

The failure to prosecute the trio with federal charges caused some speculation about a government cover-up, particularly revolving around Troy Eid, who was appointed U.S. Attorney by President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

, and has been accused of showing political biases. Some questioned why Eid did not pursue federal charges against Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson, but filed similar charges against Marc Harold Ramsey, who allegedly sent a threatening letter to 2008 Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

from behind bars in the Arapahoe County Jail. Ramsey, who faced five years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted, sent McCain a package with a harmless white powdery substance and a letter that read, "Senator McCain, If you are reading this then you are already DEAD! Unless of course you can't or don't breathe." Eid said the Ramsey case was "absolutely distinguishable" from that of Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson because there was no evidence of actual planning on the part of the trio.

In North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, Jerry Blanchard was indicted for threatening to kill Obama during a July 15, 2008 breakfast at a Waffle House

Waffle House

Waffle House is a restaurant chain with over 1600 locations found in 25 states in the United States. Most of the locations are in the Southern United States, where the chain remains a regional cultural icon...

. He allegedly called Obama the "Antichrist

Antichrist

The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...

" at the breakfast, and made similar threats against Obama later at a hotel. Blanchard was placed in custody despite the fact that no evidence surfaced that he planned to go through with an assassination attempt. Later that same month in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, Raymond H. Geisel was charged with making threatening statements against Obama during a bail-bonds training class on July 31. Geisel also threatened to put a bullet in the head of then-President Bush, although Geisel later claimed he was joking. He was found to be in possession of ammunition, body armor, a combat-style hatchet, tear gas, a loaded 9 mm handgun and four loaded magazines. Geisel said he collected firearms, and was only using the gun for his bail-bonds course. Geisel remained in custody for a month.

Eid said the Blanchard and Geisel situations were different from those of Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson because credible witnesses heard specific threats being made in both cases. Eid said Gartrell never made any threatening statements about killing Obama, and Johnson could not be considered a credible witness because he was under the influence of drugs when he made accusations against Gartrell and Adolf. Blanchard's attorney, Lawrence Hewitt, said he planned to research the Colorado cases to see whether it would have any bearing on his client's case. In a letter responding to criticism about not pursuing federal charges against Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson, Eid wrote, “It would have been disgraceful for me or any other prosecutor to charge someone for a crime he didn’t commit. ... There was no probable cause to support such a charge. To the extent you challenge my motives or those of the many investigating agents and career prosecutors who all reached this conclusion in this matter, you’re mistaken.”

Media coverage

An op-ed in the self-described "alternative media website

Alternative media

Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...

" The Centre for Research on Globalisation said the alleged assassination plot received "oddly ... little coverage" in the American mainstream media

Media of the United States

Media of the United States consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. The U.S...

and said foreign news agencies in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

and Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

provided more detailed coverage. The Centre suggested a media blackout

Media blackout

Media blackout refers to the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be voluntary, or may in some countries be enforced by the government or state. The latter case is controversial in peacetime, as some regard it as a human...

had been initiated against the story, although it did not specify whether the alleged blackout was implemented by the government or willingly by the press. Robert Arend, a writer with liberal/progressive OpEdNews

OpEdNews

OpEdNews is a United States-based progressive/liberal news, activism, and opinion website founded in 2003. The site claims 350 to 800,000 unique visitors, around 70 million hits every month, having over 44,000 registered members...

, said within two months of the alleged plot, media coverage of the trio had decreased so much, "those three creeps dropped into the bottomless pit of media obscurity".

The story was featured on page A18 of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

and page A23 in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

on August 27, 2008. The alleged assassination plot was originally listed as the 15th story on the CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

website and was not posted on the MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

site at all. The story was also unreported by ABC World News
World News with Charles Gibson
ABC World News is the flagship daily evening program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting Company television network in the United States. Currently, the weekday editions are anchored by Diane Sawyer and the weekend editions are anchored by David Muir. The program has been...

, NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...

, CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....

and PBS NewsHour
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
PBS NewsHour is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. The show is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a company co-owned by former anchors Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, and Liberty Media, which owns a 65% stake in the...

. Brad Friedman

Brad Friedman

Brad Friedman is a US blogger, journalist, actor, radio broadcaster, director and software programmer, most known for his criticism of election integrity issues in the USA...

, a fellow at the progressive Commonweal Institute, pointed out that U.S. Attorney Troy Eid put far greater focus, "on this relatively little amount of meth and their use of it than on the other apparent highly incriminating pieces of evidence obtained". Friedman criticized the media for not questioning Eid more sharply about the trio's large arsenal of weapons. Friedman also further criticized Eid as a "typical George W. Bush appointee — somewhat unprofessional, seemingly incompetent, stonewalling, less than brilliant."

Eid said the story was blown out of proportion by the blogosphere

Blogosphere

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...

, and that legitimate newspapers reported on rumors and allegations in response to the blogs. Eid said he was "hounded" by countless bloggers about the story and accused of "racism and worse" for not charging the trio with threatening a presidential candidate. He said the situation was characteristic of the way the mainstream media was changing in response to the Information Age: "Blog-driven 'news' is tragically becoming the rule, not the exception. Much of it is misinformation, where some person or interest group "spins" some angle for an unknown purpose. You can tell this when calls and e-mails start flooding the office, reading from the identical script, accusing you of the moral equivalent of crimes against humanity."

Criminal charges

Shawn Adolf was retained in prison on a $1 million bond for several outstanding warrants involving drug charges. He was initially charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, possession of body armor by a violent felon and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. On November 6, 2009, Adolf pleaded guilty to the firearm possession charge, and the other two charges were dropped. On February 5, 2010, Adolf was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison over the weapons charges; that sentence is concurrent with Adolf's subsequent sentence on March 15 to 10 years in Colorado state prison on unrelated robbery charges.

Nathan Johnson was charged with simple possession of methamphetamine and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and received a $10,000 bond at a bond hearing. Some media outlets said the low bond amount indicated authorities did not believe he was capable of assassinating Obama. On December 16, 2008, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a weapon by a prohibited person. Johnson was released from the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution

Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood

The Federal Correctional Institution Englewood is a Federal Bureau of Prisons low security facility for male offenders, located in unincorporated Jefferson County. FCI Englewood is located off of U.S. Route 285 and Kipling Street, southwest of Denver...

on March 4, 2010.

Tharin Gartrell was sentenced to 15 days in prison and six months in a halfway house for a charge of possessing methamphetamine on January 29, 2009. During his sentencing, District Judge Robert E. Blackburn

Robert E. Blackburn

Robert Edward Blackburn is a United States federal judge.Blackburn was born in Lakewood, Colorado. He received a B.A. from Western State College of Colorado in 1972. He received a J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School in 1974. He was in private practice in Las Animas, Colorado from 1975...

said, "Frankly, Mr. Gartrell, it's time you grew up." Phil Ewing, Gartrell's best friend, said at the hearing that the entire case was a misunderstanding and said, "Now people are going to see him as a racist, and that is not him." Gartrell was released from federal custody on June 12, 2009.

Investigation and arrests

Johnson implicates Adolf

Assessment of threat

Histories of alleged plotters

Comparison to other cases

Media coverage

Criminal charges

See also