A California man pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to blow up the state Democratic Party's headquarters in what prosecutors said was the first in a series of politically motivated attacks after the defeat of former President Donald Trump.
Ian Benjamin Rogers, 46, of Napa, pleaded guilty to conspiring to destroy a building by fire or explosives, possessing an explosive device and possessing a machine gun under a plea agreement that could bring him seven to nine years in federal prison.
After Trump defeated in the November 2020 presidential election, prosecutors in San Francisco charged Rogers and Jarrod Copeland with conspiring to attack targets they associated with Democrats.
The prosecutors said the charges would prompt a movement, because they hoped their attacks would prompt a movement.
Copeland, 38, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and destruction of records.
In one of the messaging apps he used to communicate with Copeland, Rogers wrote that he wanted to blow up a democrat building bad. In a different message he said, after Democratic President Joe Biden was inaugurated, we go to war. Their first target was the John L. Burton Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento, prosecutors said.
prosecutors said that the law enforcement officers who searched Rogers home in January 2021 seized more than 50 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and five pipe bombs.
He was taken into custody on state charges after the FBI said he sent text messages that agents perceived as threats against the unoccupied Governor's Mansion and social media companies Facebook and Twitter.
The federal sentence will be served concurrently with a 10 to 12 year state sentence on similar Napa County charges of possessing fully automatic weapons and explosive devices, according to Rogers attorney, Colin Cooper.
Cooper said Rogers has never been in trouble before.
Cooper said he is accepting responsibility and is desirous of paying his debt to society and resuming a life of productivity, of being a good father and good husband and a good family man with an 11-year-old son. He feels awful about what happened and what he has done to his family, and he's a guy I think we'll never see again in the criminal justice system. Rogers is in custody and is awaiting his sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 30.