A federal magistrate judge has agreed on conditions for the pretrial release of a Coast Guard lieutenant accused of stockpiling firearms and drafting a hit list of prominent Democrats and journalists.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day stopped short of ordering 50-year-old Christopher Hasson’s immediate release after a hearing Tuesday in Greenbelt, Maryland. The magistrate is giving prosecutors time to appeal his decision to a district court judge.
Day said Hasson must be subject to 24-hour home detention at one of two Virginia homes: either his mother-in-law’s rental home or a house owned by his father-in-law. The magistrate also agreed to using global positioning equipment to monitor Hasson.
Court officials in Virginia must inspect the two homes and set up the monitoring equipment before Hasson can be released.
Prosecutors have described Hasson as a domestic terrorist and racist extremist intent on carrying out a killing spree. But Day noted prosecutors haven’t brought any terrorism-related charges against Hasson since his arrest in February on firearms and drug offenses.
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