Militia leader allegedly said group was ‘training’ to kill Obama, Clinton, and Soros – Washington Examiner

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, a militia leader in New Mexico who was arrested by the FBI over the weekend on weapons charges, allegedly said his group was plotting to assassinate President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other liberal figures.

Documents unsealed in court on Monday show the FBI began looking into Hopkins in 2017 after receiving reports that said his group, known as the United Constitutional Patriots, was “training to assassinate George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.”

Soros is a billionaire investor and liberal donor.

Witnesses said the group was composed of approximately 20 members and stationed at Hopkins’ home. Additionally, the group was “armed with AK-47 rifles and other firearms,” according to an arrest warrant.

The FBI arrested Hopkins, 69, on Saturday after receiving a complaint accusing him of possessing firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon. More than 10 guns were recovered in Hopkins’ “office” after the FBI conducted a search, but Hopkins said they belonged to his “common law wife,” Fay Sanders Murphy.

The United Constitutional Patriots has detained Central American families near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Although the group claims to work alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency denies this is the case. The agency told the Daily Beast it does “not endorse private groups of organization” that take “enforcement matters into their own hands.”

Hopkins’ arrest over the weekend isn’t the first time he’s been arrested on weapons charges. He was convicted in 1996 for possessing a loaded firearm in Michigan, and he was convicted in 2006 in Oregon of felony possession of a firearm and impersonation of a peace officer.

Obama, Clinton, and Soros have all faced threats in the past.

Last month, Florida man Cesar Sayoc pleaded guilty to targeting them, and other Democrats, by sending a series of 16 crude explosive devices in the mail in 2018. Although he pleaded guilty to 65 felony counts in March, he wrote to U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff this month, saying the devices were “not ever meant to work.”