GAINESVILLE -- Two defendants that an attorney described as simply “two grumpy old men talking trash” pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to conspiring to get explosives and silencers in what prosecutors said was a militia plot to attack the government.
Frederick Thomas, 73, of Cleveland, Ga., and Dan Roberts, 67, of Toccoa could face five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. The plot allegedly involved two other North Georgia men and resulted in months of surveillance by federal agents, who used an informant to infiltrate meetings and secretly record hours of conversations.
Samuel Crump, 68, and Ray Adams, 65, both of Toccoa -- indicted last November along with Thomas and Roberts -- did not enter pleas. Crump was in the courtroom Tuesday requesting bond, along with Thomas and Roberts.
All four remain in custody in the Hall County Jail after U.S. District Judge Richard Story denied appeals for bond, saying he still considered the men -- however harmless they are portrayed by their attorneys -- as a threat to commit violence.
"I'm not clearly convinced that there is not a risk" in releasing the men to await trial, Story said, or, in the case of Thomas and Roberts, to await sentencing.
Defense attorneys had argued that the men only would have carried out their plan if the government took actions that were detrimental to the country.
"Is that the approval of a health care plan?" Story asked, "or another election? What is the act?"
Federal authorities said that beginning in March of 2011 the men held clandestine militia meetings at Thomas' house in Cleveland, during car rides, and in a Waffle House in Toccoa, at which they discussed using toxic agents and assassinations to undermine federal and state government. They also discussed how to obtain firearms, ammunition and silencers, prosecutors said.
Thomas led most the meetings, during which he described having a “bucket list” of government officials, business leaders and members of the media who needed to be “taken out” to “make the country right again,” the FBI affidavit said.
“There’s no way for us, as militiamen, to save this country, to save Georgia, without doing something that’s highly illegal: murder,” Thomas said during a meeting in March, according to the affidavit. "When it comes to saving the constitution, that means some people gotta die," he was quoted as saying.
Roberts' attorney, Michael Trost, said after the hearing that the plea was the best "rough justice" he and his client could hope for. The plea is "close to what represents the facts," he said, since it is not an admission of terrorism.
"We will resolutely deny that it is terrorism" during the sentencing hearing, he said. If Story finds Thomas and Roberts were plotting acts of terrorism, they could be sentenced to a full five years; if he does not, Trost said, the sentence could be three or four years.
U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement that the guilty plea "demonstrates that we must remain vigilant in protecting our country from citizens within our own borders who threaten our safety and security.”
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