Former Tennessee congressional candidate charged with plotting to burn down mosque

A man who ran for Congress in Tennessee last year was charged Tuesday with plotting to burn down a mosque and other buildings in a New York community with a large Muslim population.

Robert R. Doggart, 63, of Sequatchie County, was indicted by a federal grand jury and accused of the civil rights violation of soliciting others to destroy religious property. Court documents say he wrote on Facebook that his targets — a mosque, school, and cafeteria in a hamlet near Hancock, New York, called Islamberg — "must be utterly destroyed in order to get the attention of the American people." Doggart spoke with a confidential source and others on a cell phone being tapped by the FBI, court documents said, and he was reportedly heard saying he wanted to firebomb the different buildings. The plot was never carried out.

Doggart was arrested in mid-April, and said he would plead guilty, but a judge rejected the proposed plea as legally insufficient, NBC News reports. During the 2014 Congressional race, Doggart ran as an independent against the incumbent, Republican Scott DesJarlais, and received 6 percent of the vote.

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