Two California men were sentenced to prison for plotting to firebomb the Democratic headquarters in the state’s capital following the 2020 presidential election.
(Bloomberg) — Two California men were sentenced to prison for plotting to firebomb the Democratic headquarters in the state’s capital following the 2020 presidential election.
Ian Benjamin Rogers, 46, was ordered to serve a nine-year term and Jarrod Copeland, 39, got 4 1/2 years Thursday at a court hearing in San Francisco, federal prosecutors said in a statement. Both men pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to destroy the John L. Burton Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento, according to the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.
US District Judge Charles Breyer said the plan amounted to “an act of terrorism,” according to the statement. “The evidence that was obtained certainly shows that there was a plan, a design, an opportunity and ability to carry out the firebombing,” Breyer said.
Law enforcement officers seized weapons, including more than 45 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and five pipe bombs from Rogers’s home and business on Jan. 15, 2021, prosecutors said. Days earlier, referring to the upcoming Jan. 20 presidential inauguration, Rogers wrote to Copeland saying, “after the 20th we go to war,” according to the statement.
Their “decision to ‘go to war’ was based on their thought that they would rather destroy their political opponents’ building than acknowledge they lost an election and rely on the political process to make change,” US Attorney Stephanie Hinds said in the statement.
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