RICHMOND, Va. — A former Coast Guard lieutenant accused by prosecutors of plotting to kill members of Congress to advance a white nationalist agenda is asking an appellate court to vacate his guilty plea.
Christopher Hasson of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty in 2019 to firearms offenses. A judge applied a “terrorism enhancement” at his sentencing and gave him 13 years in prison.
Without the enhancement, he likely would have received no more than four years.
Hasson was never charged under a terrorism statute, and his lawyers say the terrorism enhancement was wrongly applied.
Hasson’s lawyers made their case Friday afternoon to a three-judge panel in Richmond.