Tharin Robert Gartrell, the man who was in possession of two high-powered rifles with precision sighting scopes when arrested in Colorado last Tuesday, was set to be released to a halfway house yesterday without any charges related to a possible assassination attempt on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Gartrell and associates Nathan Johnson and Shawn Robert Adolph were found in possession of 85 rounds of ammunition, a bullet-proof vest, walkie-talkies, wigs, fake I.D.s, hotel reservations near the Democratic National Convention and a minimal amount of methamphetamines.

 

Lawrence Hewitt, who is a defense attorney for Jerry Blanchard, questions why his client is being held in jail on charges of making similar statements as those made by the men in Denver, according to the Denver Post. Blanchard is a North Carolina man accused of threatening to shoot Obama. On two occasions last month Blanchard was overheard saying that Obama was the "Antichrist" and that he needed to be "taken out."

 

In Denver, according to the FBI, "Johnson was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama and he responded in the affirmative." Johnson also stated that the other two men "had planned to kill Barack Obama… on Thursday… Adolph was going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a .22-250 rifle which had been sighted at 750 yards."

 

Federal prosecutors declined to press charges for threatening the candidate but all three face federal weapons and drugs charges. Colorado U.S. Attorney Troy Eid stated, "Gartrell never made any threatening statements about killing Obama, and Johnson was under the influence when he accused Gartrell and Adolf, and is not considered a credible witness."

 

Hewitt says he plans to study the case.

 

While protesters have been preemptively targeted and arrested at the Republican National Convention, apparently the same discretion is not being applied to drugged up, rifle toting assailants who made incriminating remarks about assassination in Denver. The question of what comprises a real threat arises.

 

According to the report:

 

Just before the Democratic National Convention, Eid filed threat charges against Marc Harold Ramsey, an inmate in the Arapahoe County jail who sent a threatening letter with a white powdery substance to Sen. John McCain’s office in Centennial.

Investigators determined the powder was not hazardous, but the letter made a specific threat.

 

Brad Jacobson of MediaBloodhound reported that the mainstream media in general had scant coverage of the possible assassination plot with the New York Times burying the news on page A18, while the Washington Post relayed the local authorities’ assertions that the men posed no real threat of carrying out the plot on page A23 of their print edition the following day.