Robert DoggartUPDATE: Attorneys spent the morning debating which enhancement factors should apply to Robert Doggart's sentence. U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier hasn't handed down a sentence yet for Doggart's two counts of solicitation to commit a civil rights violation and solicitation to burn down a mosque.
But he has heard arguments from defense attorneys and federal prosecutors on four major topics.
Here's how they break down:
1. Collier denied the government's request to enhance Doggart based on his position as a leader in his plot.
2. Collier accepted the government's argument to keep Doggart's offense level at a level that probation suggested.
3. Collier accepted the government's argument to enhance Doggart for a hate crime.
4. Collier hasn't ruled yet on whether to enhance Doggart's sentence based on a terrorism guideline.
Collier called for a lunch break and said court will resume
At that time, he will allow Doggart's defense attorneys to call four witnesses for five minutes apiece.
The defense wants to keep Collier from applying the terrorism enhancement because it would increase his offense level and therefore the amount of time he has to serve. Their client has no prior criminal history.
The purpose of the witnesses is to show Doggart didn't have racial animus in his mind and didn't want to attack Islamberg's mosque because of its religion, the defense argued.
But prosecutors countered that Doggart wasn't just at war with Islamberg--but also the federal government.
"He was trying to influence government conduct," said Saeed Mody, a prosecutor from the Department of Justice's civil rights division, citing the definition of terrorism.
Doggart wanted to create a flash point for militias nationwide who believed the government was trying to impose martial law on April 15, 2015, Mody said.
The attack on Islamberg was a "diversionary tactic" that would provide cover for the uprising, he added.
For evidence, Mody pointed to a handful of wiretapped phone calls in which Doggart discussed the militia operation and his desire to attack federal facilities.
This is a developing story. Please check back later for more.
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ORIGINAL STORY: A 65-year-old Tennessee man convicted of plotting to attack a Muslim community in New York faces 20 years in federal prison during his sentencing hearing today.
U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier will decide Robert Doggart's punishment for his solicitation to commit a civil rights violation and solicitation to burn down a mosque convictions.
The hearing begins at 10 a.m. in Chattanooga's U.S. District Court downtown.
Doggart, a former 2014 congressional candidate and Tennessee Valley Authority engineer, believed Islamberg, N.Y., was a training ground for terrorists and wanted to see for himself whether its members were planning to attack New York City or poison the Delaware River.
Law enforcement officers found no evidence of any such attack, but Doggart attempted to recruit several people from right-wing social medias between February 2015 and April 2015 to visit the roughly 70-acre commune armed.
To that end, prosecutors played numerous wiretapped phone calls in which Doggart discussed using assault weapons, machetes and demolition equipment on Islamberg, at one point referring to children as "collateral damage."
Doggart often spoke with a confidential informant for the FBI, who goaded him into a plan he never intended to carry out, his defense attorneys argued during his eight-day trial in February.
Ultimately, jurors found Doggart guilty of two counts of threat in interstate commerce, one count of solicitation to commit a civil rights violation and one count of solicitation to burn down a mosque after deadlocking one day and asking for clarifications.
Collier dismissed the interstate commerce convictions earlier this month, agreeing with defense attorneys that Doggart never made a true threat because he didn't accomplish his goals through intimidation.
Prosecutors estimated Doggart faced 40 years maximum among his four convictions before Collier's decision; now he faces 20. They can appeal Collier's decision after the sentencing hearing today.
In the meantime, Doggart remains in federal custody in Dekalb County, Ala.