A Coast Guard lieutenant accused of stockpiling firearms and drafting a hit list of prominent Democrats and journalists can be released from custody and supervised by relatives in Virginia while awaiting trial, a federal magistrate judge said Tuesday.
Christopher Hasson, 50, who at one time lived in and still owns a home in Currituck County, has been portrayed by prosecutors as a domestic terrorist and racist extremist intent on carrying out massive killings.
Hasson has been held without bond since his Feb. 15 arrest on firearms and drug charges. Prosecutors have portrayed Hasson as a domestic terrorist, but a federal magistrate on Tuesday approved his release because no terrorism-related charges have been place.
Hasson wasn’t immediately released. Instead the federal magistrate have given his attorneys a few days to draft release conditions that would need to be approved.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom told the Associated Presst that prosecutors had presented “clear and convincing evidence” that Hasson poses a danger to the public.