The Associated Press reports the following:
A Louisiana State University student told another student he was planning a violent attack against U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, police said.
Richard Ryan Wargo, 19, of Shreveport, was ordered held on $1 million bond Friday. He was booked on counts of terrorizing, communicating false information of planned arson and possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Although it happened Friday, it's taken two days for the story to begin breaking across the country. Predictably, bloggers are hard at work this morning trying to piece together more details about the accused would-be assassin.
Although some have tried to play this off as just an offhand remark or misinterpreted joke, it should be noted that local police claim to have found incriminating documents in Wargo's dormitory room.
Police arrested Wargo in a traffic stop Thursday night. Officers searched his dormitory room and found documents that made the classmate's accusations appear credible, Adams said. He declined to give details, but said officers also seized Wargo's computer and marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
If they found documents like maps, plans, formulas for explosives, or anything else like it that shows this kid had a plan to assassinate Hillary Clinton and took actions to bring it about, this kid is toast. Actus Reus and Mens Rea: end of story, end of kid.
Of course, the elephant in the corner of the room is this kid's political affiliation, if indeed he has one. Is Wargo just another troubled and violent misanthrope? That doesn't seem likely. Unlike the killer at Virginia Tech, Wargo seems to have many friends: they have in fact set up a Facebook group to support him. So the disaffected loner profile doesn't fit.
That's not Facebook's only connection to this story. According to The Advocate:
According to a profile of Wargo on his Facebook page, he is member of Stop Hillary Clinton: One Million Strong Against Hillary. According to a Stop Hillary Clinton online page, also on Facebook, the group has 244,782 members.
Being a member of this group suggests to me a Republican affiliation, but it's not conclusive. I tried to access the Louisiana State University College Republicans website, but it seems to be down at the moment. Probably just a coincidence. Many college political club sites collapse when the person who knows how to run the site graduates. That might be the case here. Then again, according to the Google cache of the page, it was up and running as recently as last weekend; in other words, it's been taken down in the last week.
You can read the criminal complaint, view the results of the search warrant for Wargo's dorm room, and see a picture of Wargo at The Smoking Gun.
The AP report can be found here.