After Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential election, Patrick Stein, Curtis Allen, and Gavin Wright planned to blow up an apartment complex in Kansas that housed a mosque and dozens of Somali refugees. The goals was to “wake people up.” After an eight-month investigation by the FBI, Stein, Allen, and Wright were arrested.
According to reports, all three men will face sentencing on Nov. 19 and 20, however, their lawyers say Donald Trump’s rhetoric inspired the potential bombing and are now asking for leniency during sentencing.
“As long as the White House with impunity calls Islam ‘a dangerous threat,’ and paints average Americans as ‘victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad,’ a mixed signal gets sent,” Wright’s attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday (Oct. 30)
“As long as the Executive Branch condemns Islam and commends and encourages violence against would-be enemies, then a sentence imposed by the Judicial Branch does little to deter people generally from engaging in such conduct if they believe they are protecting their countries from enemies identified by their own Commander-in-Chief,” Wright continued.
Federal prosecutors argued that a maximum sentence of life in prison would be “acceptable.”
“Their goal was not only to commit mass murder, but also to incite other groups to ‘wake up’ and commit other acts of violence against Muslims, against landlords who rent to Muslims, and against the U.S. government, and to spread the hateful message that Muslims should be, in the words of Defendant Stein, ‘eradicated’ from the United States,” prosecutors argued.
Stein’s attorney asked he serves no more than 15 years, while Allen’s lawyer asked he be sentenced to 10 years for each count to be served consecutively. Wright’s legal counsel asked he be sentenced to time served.
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