NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man pleaded not responsible Wednesday in a federal case that accuses him of stockpiling the biggest variety of completed explosives in FBI historical past and utilizing President Joe Biden’s photograph for goal follow.
Chained at his legs and carrying an orange jumpsuit, Brad Spafford, 36, mentioned little past answering principally “sure” and “no” questions from a federal Justice of the Peace throughout his arraignment in U.S. District Court docket in Norfolk.
The listening to centered totally on setting a Could 28 trial date, which is required to present sufficient time to attorneys to evaluation an unlimited trove of proof.
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Rebecca Gantt, a federal prosecutor, instructed a choose that authorities are nonetheless analyzing proof from the FBI’s seizure of roughly 150 pipe bombs and different selfmade gadgets at Spafford’s dwelling in Isle of Wight County, which is northwest of Norfolk.
A lot of the explosives had been detonated on Spafford’s property, requiring soil analyses, whereas some gadgets had been taken to a lab for examination, Gantt mentioned. She added that investigators had been nonetheless going by Spafford’s digital gadgets, together with a cellphone with 500,000 photographs on it, amongst different proof.
Spafford faces one rely of possession of an unregistered harmful machine and one rely of possession of an unregistered quick barrel rifle. Each are felony prices punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.
Certainly one of Spafford’s attorneys, Kenneth Woodward, talked about to the choose that the Nationwide Firearms Act, below which Spafford is charged, doesn’t outline what’s an explosive.
Woodward declined to remark after Wednesday’s listening to. However Spafford’s attorneys have questioned whether or not the explosive gadgets discovered on his property had been usable as a result of “professionally educated explosive technicians needed to rig the gadgets to blow up them.”
“There’s not a shred of proof within the file that Mr. Spafford ever threatened anybody and the competition that somebody could be at risk due to their political beliefs and feedback is nonsensical,” his protection attorneys wrote in a court docket submitting after his arrest.
The investigation into Spafford started in 2023 when an informant instructed authorities that Spafford was stockpiling weapons and ammunition, in keeping with court docket paperwork. The informant, a buddy and member of legislation enforcement, instructed authorities that Spafford was utilizing photos of the president for goal follow and that “he believed political assassinations needs to be introduced again,” prosecutors wrote.
Quite a few legislation enforcement officers and bomb technicians searched the property on Dec. 17.
Spafford stored a highly unstable explosive material in a storage freezer subsequent to “Scorching Pockets and frozen corn on the cob,” in keeping with court docket paperwork. Investigators additionally mentioned they discovered explosive gadgets in an unsecured backpack labeled “#NoLivesMatter.”
Spafford’s attorneys had argued for his launch as he awaits trial. However final week, a federal choose dominated he should keep in jail, writing that Spafford has “proven the capability for excessive hazard.”
U.S. District Decide Arenda L. Wright Allen noted in her ruling that Spafford misplaced three fingers in an accident involving selfmade explosives in 2021, one thing she mentioned his protection attorneys haven’t disputed.
Protection attorneys had argued that that Spafford, who’s married and a father of two younger daughters, works a gentle job as a machinist and has no felony file.
Protection legal professional Jeffrey Swartz mentioned at Spafford’s detention listening to that investigators had gathered info on him since January 2023, throughout which Spafford by no means threatened anybody.
“And what has he accomplished throughout these two years?” Swartz mentioned. “He bought a house. He’s raised his youngsters. He’s in a fantastic marriage. He has a incredible job, and people issues all nonetheless exist for him.”
Investigators, nonetheless, mentioned that they had restricted information of the selfmade bombs till an informant visited Spafford’s dwelling, federal prosecutors wrote in a submitting.
“However as soon as the defendant said on a recorded wire that he had an unstable major explosive within the freezer in October 2024, the federal government moved swiftly,” prosecutors wrote.
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