Barack Obama Assassination Scare in Denver - Assessment of Threat

Assessment of Threat

FBI Special Agent 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 Troy Eid 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. 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 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.

"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."

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 involvement, although experts at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the radical right, 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, 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."