February 1, 2020

A Former Coast Guard Lieutenant Gets 13 Years After Plotting to Kill Liberals

Christopher Hasson, an admitted white nationalist, was convicted late Friday.

Hasson's weapons stockpile.Maryland U.S. District Attorney/AP

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On Friday, Christopher Hasson, a 50-year-old Maryland man, was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison for various drug and gun charges after drafting a hit list targeting popular left-leaning media personalities and Democratic politicians.

Hasson, a former Coast Guard lieutenant who described himself as a white nationalist, was plotting to kill a litany of high-profile liberals including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and television personalities like MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough. When he was arrested last February, law enforcement searched his home and found a stockpile of guns and ammunition. Court filings also indicated that he’d ordered more than 4,000 opioid pills between March 2016 and February 2019, taking the bulk of them himself, often while working at the Coast Guard’s headquarters.

“Christopher Hasson intended to inflict violence on the basis of his racist and hateful beliefs,” Robert Hur, the US Attorney for the District of Maryland, said in a statement Friday. “As long as violent extremists take steps to harm innocent people, we will continue to use all of the tools we have to prevent and deter them.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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