Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver

Barack Obama, 2008 U.S. Presidential candidate and feared target of an alleged assassination plot.

The 2008 Barack Obama assassination scare refers to news reports of an alleged plot by Shawn Robert Adolf, Tharin Robert Gartrell and Nathan Johnson to assassinate Senator Barack Obama, the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nominee, at the Democratic National Convention, in Denver, Colorado . The trio were tied together by officials who alleged they planned to shoot Obama with a high-powered rifle based on their reported white supremacist belief that an African American should not be elected President of the United States. Gartrell was arrested August 24 and found to be in possession of rifles and other weaponry; Adolf and Johnson were arrested shortly thereafter. In a televised interview prior to his arrest, Johnson identified Adolf as the man who allegedly hatched the plot and planned to be the shooter. Although suspected white supremacist associations led federal authorities to investigate possible ties to a larger group, federal authorities downplayed the three would-be shooters as drug addicts who had little chance of actually carrying out the plot.

Investigation and arrests

Tharin Gartrell, 28; his cousin Shawn Robert Adolf, 33; and their friend Nathan Johnson, 32, came to Denver, Colorado in August 2008 specifically to kill Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. The men arrived in Denver before Obama arrived there. Federal authorities began an investigation into the trio after they made alleged racist threats against Barack Obama in a Denver hotel room while taking methamphetamine. A woman present for their conversation, who was not identified by an affidavit, told Colorado State Patrol officers they "could not believe how close he was to becoming President." She claimed they spoke about killing the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, and that Adolf allegedly said, "No nigger should ever live in the White House." Security had already been tight around Obama due to low-grade fears of possible assassination threats against the first [[African American major party presidential candidate. Authorities did not identify the woman who informed on the trio, nor did they disclose whether she was charged with a crime.

Gartrell was arrested August 24 at about 1:30 a.m. after police in Aurora, Colorado, a suburb east of Denver, pulled over his rented 2008 blue Dodge Ram truck, which was swerving erratically. Police found a Ruger Model M77 Mark II 22-250 bolt-action rifle with an attached scope and bipod, and a Remington Model 721 270 bolt-action rifle with an attached hunting scope; one of the rifles was fitted with a silencer. Police also found two wigs, three fake IDs, camouflage clothing, a bulletproof vest, two walkie-talkies and 4.4 grams of what appeared to be methamphetamine in the truck. At least one of the rifles was stolen. Gartrell was high on methamphetamine when arrested, and was found to be driving on a suspended license and was carrying a false Colorado identification card with a Centennial, Colorado address. Gartrell was using crutches at the time of his arrest.

Later in the day August 24, Gartrell told an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that the weapons belonged to his cousin Adolf, which prompted police to investigate Adolf and Johnson. Police sought to arrest Johnson and Adolf later in the day August 24 after interviewing Gartrell. Johnson was arrested at a hotel near Interstate 25 and Belleview Avenue in Aurora at about 4:30 a.m. Adolf was arrested at the Cherry Creek Hotel in Glendale, a separate hotel than Johnson, at about 5 a.m. Adolf jumped out of a sixth-story hotel window when police arrived; he fell four stories onto the second-floor roof of the hotel kitchen, then jumped again onto the ground around the hotel. He broke his ankle in the fall, but tried to run before police found him a short distance away. Adolf was hospitalized shortly after his arrest. Like Gartrell, Johnson and Adolf were found to be high on methamphetamine during their arrest. During interviews with police, both men made racist statements similar to those allegedly made in their earlier hotel room discussions.

Johnson implicates Adolf

During an August 25 interview with KCNC-TV, a CBS owned-and-operated television station in Denver, Johnson first denied being personally involved with the plot and, when asked whether he felt the men had serious planned to go through with the assassination, he said, "Looking back at it, I don't want to say yes, but I don't want to say no." Eventually, however, he admitted the other two men had planned a killing when he said, "Yeah, they were here to do that, to assassinate him... it's about as hard for me to swallow as it is for you to understand." Johnson said the plan was for Adolf "shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a...rifle...sighted at 750 yards" on August 28, the day of his acceptance speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High at the Democratic National Convention. Johnson told the station, "He don't belong in political office. Blacks don't belong in political office. He ought to be shot." Johnson said Adolf previously made comments about killing any African American who ran for president: "He made a comment in the past. I can't honestly tell you how long ago in the past, that he didn't believe a black should be the leader of this country." Law enforcement sources also told KCNC-TV that one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative." Johnson said Gartrell came to Denver to help Adolf execute the plan, and Gartrell later admitted to police that in talking about Obama, there was a reference to "shooting on a grassy knoll," a reference to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. An arrest warrant read, "Adolf said that he wanted to kill Obama and additionally stated that he would specifically use a sniper rifle and high powered scope, and find high ground to set up and shoot Obama." Johnson later rejected additional media interview requests.

United States Attorney Troy Eid said the racist statements the suspects made following their arrests had not risen to the legal standard that would have allowed the filing of federal charges for threatening a presidential candidate, and prosecutors siad they had insufficient evidence that they had the means to carry out a plot to kill Obama. Gartrell was held on $50,000 bail at the Arapahoe County jail on weapons charges, simple possession (less than five grams) of methamphetamine and parole violations. Adolf was held on $1 million bond for several outstanding warrants involving drug charges; he was charged with possession of a firearm and body armor by a violent convicted felon, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and parole violations.. Johnson was also charged with simple possession of methamphetamine and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and received a $10,000 bond at a bond hearing; some media outlets said the low bond amount indicated authorities did not believe he was capable of assassinating Obama. Johnson's girlfriend, Natasha Gromek, was also arrested on drug charges, but was not believed to be involved in the plot. State drug and weapons charges against Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson were transferred to federal charges on August 28; U.S. Attorney Office spokesman Jeff Dorschner said it was "best from a coordination standpoint" if the cases were in federal court.

Assessment of threat

"We're absolutely confident that the meth heads were not a true threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention or the people of Colorado."

U.S. Attorney Troy Eid

The United States Secret Service, ATF, a U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorney's Office investigated the plot. Inconsistencies with the men's stories led investigators to downgrade the threat the men presented to Barack Obama. During a press conference August 26, federal authorities said Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson said they possessed little, if any, chance of actually assassinating Obama. Eid described the alleged plot as "more aspirational, perhaps, than operational" and said, "we're absolutely confident that the meth heads were not a true threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention or the people of Colorado." Officials did not believe the would-be shooters had a clear path to hit the stage from outside the convention hall, and that the trio stayed in a suburban Hyatt hotel they erroneously believed Obama was staying in. FBI officials said no additional precautions was planned in response to the alleged plot because security had already been high due to the prospect of threats from extremist groups. One FBI official described the trio as "just a couple of rednecks thinking out loud what they'd like to do."

But although officials downplayed the level of threat the trio presented to Obama, they said they planned further investigations into how a gang of supposed small-time criminals collected such a massive arsenal. Authorities believed the men had at least some white supremacist involvement, although experts at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the radical right, said no evidence exists linking any men to a white supremacist group. Nevertheless, the possible connections prompted FBI officials, who originally considered the threat "relatively minor," to grow stronger concerns about whether the motives from the three plotters could have been connected to a larger organization. The FBI stated that with an African-American candidate for President "...you are certainly going to look at the general threat picture against any candidate and factor in the threats posed by those who preach hate and racism."

Media coverage

The Centre for Research on Globalisation, a Montreal-based website about social and economic issues, said the alleged assassination plot received "oddly...little coverage" in the American mainstream media and said foreign new agencies in Russia, Lebanon and Israel provided more detailed coverage. The Centre suggested a media blackout had been initiated against the story, although it did not specify whether it was implemented by the government or willingly by the press. Brad Friedman, freelance journalist and creator of the Brad Blog, said the press may have willingly submitted to Secret Service requests for a reduction in coverage for the protection of the candidate. Nevertheless, Friedman criticized the American media for its lack of coverage and analysis, pointing out it is "incumbent on our journalists to ask the right questions and responsibly report information that encourages U.S. law enforcement officials to perform their jobs with ever greater vigilance."

The story was featured on page A18 of The New York Times and page A23 in The Washington Post on August 27, 2008. The alleged assassination plot was originally listed as the 15th story on the CNN website and was not posted on the MSNBC site at all. The story was also unreported by ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News and PBS NewsHour. Friedman pointed out that U.S. Attorney Troy Eid put far greater focus on a "relatively little amount of meth and their use of it" than on Johnson's statements and other incriminating pieces of evidence," and criticized the media for not questioning Eid more sharply about the trio's large arsenal of weapons. Friedman also further criticized Eid as a "typical George W. Bush appointee - somewhat unprofessional, seemingly incompetent, stonewalling, less than brilliant," and questioned why Eid considered Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson as non-threats even though Eid previously charged Marc Harold Ramsey, an inmate incarcerated at the Arapahoe County Jail, with sending a threatening letter to 2008 Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain from behind bars. Ramsey, who faces five years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted, sent McCain a package with a harmless white powdery substance and a letter that read, "Senator McCain, If you are reading this then you are already DEAD! Unless of course you can't or don't breathe."

Histories of alleged plotters

As of August 26, 2008, law enforcement officials were also investigating whether Shawn Adolf, Tharin Gartrell and Nathan Johnson were linked to vandalism shootings that targeted at least two federal buildings in Denver two weeks prior to their arrest. Windows were shot at the U.S. Custom House and the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Station in Denver's downtown Federal District. Authorities were also studying whether a bullet recovered from a Hertz rental car shot on August 15 could have matched the guns seized from the men.

Shawn Adolf, a Greeley, Colorado resident, is the only one of the three alleged plotters with any previous history of violence. Adolf was arrested in May 14, 1997 for his involvement in a theft of $350,000-worth of construction equipment, materials and vehicles in Greeley. He served prison time starting in 1997 on drug-related charges and faced two third-degree assault charges in 2001. At the time of his arrest for the alleged assassination plot, he had eight warants out for him for various crimes around Colorado and was on the most-wanted list of the Weld County, Colorado sheriff's department for burglary, larceny, aggravated motor vehicle theft and other prior charges. Adolf possessed a handcuff key in one hand and a swastika ring in the other when he was arrested for the alleged assassination plot. His criminal history also included burglary, forgery, drug and weapon charges.

Tharin Gartrell a professional club-music disc jockey originally from Lincoln County, Nevada. He lived in Pioche, Nevada until the 1990s, when he moved to another rural Nevada town with his father, Carl "Flash" Gartrell, a journeyman ranch hand and heavy equipment operator. Carl Gartrell has a history of multiple drug- and alcohol-related arrests and in August 2008 had a warrant out for his arrest in Lincoln County. Tharin Gartrell, who had no known address at the time of his arrest, was run over by a truck as a child and, according to Lincoln County, Colorado Sheriff Kerry Lee, "it was absolutely amazing that he wasn't hurt badly." As a teen, Gartrell tried to enroll at a high school about 80 miles north of Las Vegas, but instead attended a Colorado high school and experienced significant disciplinary action problems. He was told he would have to enroll in an alternative school, but never did. Like Adolf, Gartrell and Johnson had a criminal history involving burglary, forgery, drug and weapon charges. Tharin is a registered with the Republican Party in Colorado.