Sentence upheld for Coast Guard officer tied to terror plot
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a prison sentence of more than 13 years for a former Coast Guard officer accused of stockpiling weapons and plotting politically motivated killings inspired by a far-right mass murderer.
Christopher Hasson argued the district court judge who sentenced him in January 2020 improperly applied a “terrorism enhancement” that more than tripled the recommended range of a prison term under federal sentencing guidelines. Hasson was not charged or convicted of a terrorism-related offense.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Hasson's argument, saying he failed to demonstrate that the sentencing judge legally or factually erred in applying the enhancement.
In a separate but similar case, the 4th Circuit ruled that a defendant does not need to be convicted of a federal crime of terrorism for the enhancement to be applied. It applies "whenever a defendant’s offense of conviction or relevant conduct was ‘intended to promote’ a federal crime of terrorism,” the panel noted in its ruling for Hasson's case.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/sentence-upheld-for-coast-guard-officer-tied-to-terror-plot/ar-AAUaLoz
