Militia-trained man indicted for threatening to shoot Obama

• Tweet
• 
• 

• Tweet

A militia-trained Pennsylvania man has been indicted for allegedly threatening to shoot President Barack Obama one day before he took the oath of office for a second time in January.

The El Paso Times on Monday reported that prosecutors alleged that 20-year-old William Mose Tucker on Sept. 1, 2012 told someone that he planned to kill Obama on Jan. 20, one day before the presidential inauguration.

Court records showed that prosecutors said Tucker had been trained by a militia in Texas and had access to weapons.

A Secret Service agent testified that the person who Tucker told that he was planning to shoot the president had reported him to authorities. During interviews, Tucker denied an assassination plot, but admitted that he had attended meetings with an El Paso group called the “20th Militia.”

Court documents stated that the “20th Militia,” which consisted of current and former members of the military, had been investigated by the FBI and other federal agencies in the past.

Defense attorney William Maynard argued that Tucker only had a “brief unspecified association” with the militia group.

The suspect had lived in the El Paso area in 2011, but had moved to Oklahoma for a job selling magazine subscriptions by the time of his arrest.

Defense attorneys claimed that Tucker did not intended to follow through with this threat against the president and owned no weapons or ammunition. They have asked that a judge’s order that he be held without bond be reviewed by U.S. District Court.

Federal prosecutors suggested that Tucker avoided contact with Secret Service agents and that they were only able to locate him after agents “used a ruse” to find his hotel location.

Tucker could face up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines if convicted. He is scheduled to be in court again on March 28.