A Missouri man allegedly made plans to shoot President Obama and solicited help from a former Aryan Nation member to carry out his plot, according to federal charges filed Tuesday in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Cameron Stout of Stover, Mo. was charged in federal court on Tuesday with making threats against the President.
Stout allegedly told a confidential federal informant, who authorities said is a former member of the Aryan Nation white supremacist group, about his plans to shoot Obama, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
Stout's public defender, Troy K. Stabenow, told TPM in an email on Wednesday that it's not yet clear whether Stout's threats were serious.
"Did Mr. Stout commit a federal crime, or was he simply exercising his 1st Amendment rights - venting his feelings to someone he thought was similarly disenchanted with Washington?" Stabenow wrote in an email to TPM.
The informant met Stout last week while fishing and, the affidavit said, either Stout or his friend "made a rude hand gesture towards" the informant. A confrontation took place, but tensions cooled and the men ended up hitting it off. The informant eventually invited the two to dinner at his house.
After Stout's friend left dinner, according to the affidavit, the suspect allegedly told the informant about his plan to shoot Obama.
When Stout said that he did not have the proper weapon, the informant offered to put Stout in contact with an Aryan Nation leader for assistance, the document said.
The informant's girlfriend reportedly recorded part of the conversation.
"I dont wanna annihilate anybody, I wanna fuckin change America," Stout allegedly told the informant. "If you had contact with the people that you say you had contact with, I could kill the President of the United States, and then we storm Washington, and then we take over the country that our forefathers created."
Stout told the informant in a conversation on Saturday that he had researched locations from which to shoot Obama at the White House and the church that the President attends, according to the affidavit. He also allegedly researched wind speeds in Washington and the type of weapon he would need to carry out the plot. Stout also allegedly drew diagrams of D.C. for the informant, who gave them to law enforcement.
"That nigger shouldnt be President," Stout allegedly told the informant, adding that "some of my best friends have been niggers."
Stout allegedly planned on reaching out to an Aryan Nation leader through the informant for help escaping from Washington, D.C. after carrying out his plot to shoot the President, according to the affidavit.
On Tuesday, an undercover officer purporting to be an Aryan Nation leader met with the informant and Stout to discuss the assassination plot, according to the affidavit. Stout said during that meeting that he planned on shooting Obama during the president's next visit to Kansas City, Mo., and asked the undercover officer for transportation to Kansas City.
Authorities did not give Stout a chance to go any further. They arrested him the same day and he was charged.
Stout's lawyer, Troy Stabenow, has not yet met with Stout, but noted that Stout contradicted himself by describing plots in both Washington, D.C. and Kansas City, Mo.
"I haven't seen any evidence that the President is scheduled to come to Kansas City anytime in the near future, so the question is, how do we judge this sort of talk?" he wrote to TPM in an email.
