Trump’s rhetoric pushed man to commit terror plot: lawyers

Lawyers for a man convicted of a terrorist plot to bomb a Kansas apartment complex are blaming President Trump for stoking their client’s fiery rhetoric about Muslims.

Attorneys for Patrick Stein — who was found guilty of planning to kill Muslim residents of Garden City, Kansas — claimed that Trump’s “brand of rough-and-tumble verbal pummeling” contributed to Stein’s homicidal thoughts.

“The court cannot ignore the circumstances of one of the most rhetorically mold-breaking, violent, awful, hateful and contentious presidential elections in modern history, driven in large measure by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president,” the lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo filed on Monday.

The lawyers are asking for a lesser sentence in part due to the argument that Stein was a Trump supporter and the president inflamed Stein’s anti-immigrant hatred — ultimately influencing the man’s attack plans.

“A person normally at a 3 on a scale of political talk might have found themselves at a 7 during the election,” the lawyers wrote.

“A person, like Patrick, who would often be at a 7 during a normal day, might ‘go to 11.’ See SPINAL TAP. That climate should be taken into account when evaluating the rhetoric that formed the basis of the government’s case.”

Stein and two other members of a Kansas militia group were convicted of the plot to bomb an apartment complex that’s home to Somali immigrants the day after the November election.

The lawyers are asking for a 15 year sentence for their client.

Filed under 10/29/18

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