Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver

during his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.|alt=Barack Obama delivering his acceptance speech. In August 2008 Tharin Robert Gartrell, 28, his cousin Shawn Robert Adolf, 33, and their friend Nathan Dwaine Johnson, 32, allegedly came to Denver, Colorado, specifically to kill then-Senator Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. The men came to Denver before Obama arrived there, Federal authorities began an investigation into the trio after they made alleged racist threats against Obama while taking methamphetamine in the hotel room. A woman present for their conversation, who was not identified by a police affidavit, told Colorado State Patrol officers they "could not believe how close he was to becoming President". they spoke about killing the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, and that Adolf allegedly said, "No nigger should ever live in the White House." A woman in the group said it would be a "suicide mission", Authorities did not identify the woman who informed on the trio, nor did they disclose whether she was charged with a crime. Police in Aurora, Colorado, a suburb east of Denver, pulled over his rented 2008 blue Dodge Ram truck, which was swerving erratically. Police found a Ruger Model M77 Mark II .22-250 bolt-action rifle with an attached scope and bipod, and a Remington Model 721 270 bolt-action rifle with an attached hunting scope. One of the rifles was fitted with a silencer. The truck contained enough drug-making equipment for the vehicle to be considered "a mobile lab". Gartrell told an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that the weapons belonged to his cousin Adolf, and he led police to the hotels where Adolf and Johnson were staying. Johnson was arrested at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center, at about 4:30 a.m. Adolf was arrested at the Cherry Creek Hotel in Glendale at about 5 a.m. Adolf jumped out of a sixth-story hotel window when police arrived. He fell four stories onto the second-floor roof of the hotel kitchen, then jumped again onto the ground around the hotel. He broke his ankle in the fall, but tried to run before police found him a short distance away. Adolf, who was hospitalized shortly after his arrest, was wearing body armor when police apprehended him. He told police this was because "someone wanted to shoot him". Like Gartrell, Johnson and Adolf were found to be under the influence of methamphetamine during their arrests. During interviews with police, both men made racist statements similar to those allegedly made in their earlier hotel room discussions. ==Johnson implicates Adolf==

Johnson told the United States Secret Service he rented the Hyatt hotel room at Adolf's request and that he believed "without a doubt" Johnson said the plan was for Adolf to, "shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a [rifle] sighted at 750 yards". Johnson said Adolf previously made comments about killing any African American who ran for president: "He made a comment in the past. I can't honestly tell you how long ago in the past, that he didn't believe a black should be the leader of this country." However, Johnson also told the reporter he came to the conclusion that there was an assassination plot planned only after being questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation multiple times, adding, “I told them I had no idea there was a plot, a plan, a conspiracy or anything like that ... When the feds came and laid out everything on the table and how it looked, I was in agreement that they could have been up here to do something like that." Johnson later rejected additional media interview requests. ==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. 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”. The Secret Service, ATF, FBI, a U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force and the U.S. Attorney's office investigated the plot. 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. ==Histories of alleged plotters==

in Denver. After their arrest, law enforcement officials investigated whether Adolf, Gartrell and Johnson were linked to vandalism shootings that targeted at least two federal buildings in Denver two weeks prior to their arrest. Windows were shot at the U.S. Custom House and the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Station in Denver's downtown Federal District. Authorities were also studying whether a bullet recovered from a Hertz rental car shot on August 15 could have matched the guns seized from the men. was the only one of the three alleged plotters with any prior history of violence. He lived in Pioche, Nevada until the 1990s, when he moved to another rural Nevada town with his father, Carl "Flash" Gartrell, a journeyman ranch hand and heavy equipment operator. Carl Gartrell has a history of multiple drug- and alcohol-related arrests and, in August 2008, a warrant was issued for his arrest in Lincoln County. Tharin Gartrell, who had no known address at the time of his arrest, was run over by a truck as a child and, according to Lincoln County, Nevada Sheriff Kerry Lee, "It was absolutely amazing that he wasn't hurt badly." Gartrell experienced significant disciplinary action problems in high school and was told he would have to enroll in an alternative school, but never did. Friends said Gartrell had been on probation for drugs and had not committed any crimes for several years, but fell off the wagon and started spending time with Adolf in mid-August 2008. Like Adolf, Gartrell and Johnson had a criminal history involving burglary, forgery, drug and weapon charges. Tharin is registered with the Republican Party in Colorado. ==Comparison to other cases==

The failure to prosecute the trio with federal charges caused some speculation about a government cover-up, particularly revolving around Troy Eid, who was appointed U.S. Attorney by President George W. Bush, Some questioned why Eid did not pursue federal charges against Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson, but filed similar charges against Marc Harold Ramsey, who allegedly sent a threatening letter to 2008 Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain from behind bars in the Arapahoe County Jail. Ramsey, who faced five years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted, sent McCain a package with a harmless white powdery substance and a letter that read, "Senator McCain, If you are reading this then you are already DEAD! Unless of course you can't or don't breathe." Eid said the Ramsey case was "absolutely distinguishable" from that of Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson because there was no evidence of actual planning on the part of the trio. In North Carolina, Jerry Blanchard was indicted for threatening to kill Obama during a July 15, 2008 breakfast at a Waffle House. He allegedly called Obama the "Antichrist" at the breakfast, and made similar threats against Obama later at a hotel. Blanchard was placed in custody despite the fact that no evidence surfaced that he planned to go through with an assassination attempt. Later that same month in Florida, Raymond H. Geisel was charged with making threatening statements against Obama during a bail-bonds training class on July 31. Geisel also threatened to put a bullet in the head of then-President Bush, although Geisel later claimed he was joking. He was found to be in possession of ammunition, body armor, a combat-style hatchet, tear gas, a loaded 9 mm handgun and four loaded magazines. Geisel said he collected firearms, and was only using the gun for his bail-bonds course. Geisel remained in custody for a month. Eid said the Blanchard and Geisel situations were different from those of Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson because credible witnesses heard specific threats being made in both cases. Eid said Gartrell never made any threatening statements about killing Obama, and Johnson could not be considered a credible witness because he was under the influence of drugs when he made accusations against Gartrell and Adolf. Blanchard's attorney, Lawrence Hewitt, said he planned to research the Colorado cases to see whether it would have any bearing on his client's case. In a letter responding to criticism about not pursuing federal charges against Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson, Eid wrote, “It would have been disgraceful for me or any other prosecutor to charge someone for a crime he didn’t commit. ... There was no probable cause to support such a charge. To the extent you challenge my motives or those of the many investigating agents and career prosecutors who all reached this conclusion in this matter, you’re mistaken.” ==Media coverage==

The story was reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post on August 27, 2008, as well as CNN's website. The alleged plot was originally listed as the 15th story on the CNN website and was not posted on the MSNBC site at all. The story was also unreported by ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News and PBS NewsHour. Troy Eid wrote an opinion piece saying the story was blown out of proportion by the blogosphere, and that legitimate newspapers reported on rumors and allegations in response to the blogs. Eid said he was "hounded" by countless bloggers about the story and accused of "racism and worse" for not charging the trio with threatening a presidential candidate. He said the situation was characteristic of the way the mainstream media was changing in response to the Information Age." ==Criminal charges==

Shawn Adolf was retained in prison on a $1 million bond for several outstanding warrants involving drug charges. On February 5, 2010, Adolf was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison over the weapons charges; that sentence is concurrent with Adolf's subsequent sentence on March 15 to 10 years in Colorado state prison on unrelated robbery charges. Nathan Johnson was charged with simple possession of methamphetamine and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Johnson was released from the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution on March 4, 2010. Tharin Gartrell was sentenced to 15 days in prison and six months in a halfway house for a charge of possessing methamphetamine on January 29, 2009. During his sentencing, District Judge Robert E. Blackburn said, "Frankly, Mr. Gartrell, it's time you grew up." Phil Ewing, Gartrell's best friend, said at the hearing that the entire case was a misunderstanding and said, "Now people are going to see him as a racist, and that is not him." ==See also==