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Drug Suspects Deemed Not A Real Threat To Obama

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The Associated Press

Published: August 27, 2008

DENVER - A group of suspected drug users arrested in Denver this weekend with methamphetamine, guns and bulletproof vests made racist threats against Barack Obama but posed no true danger to the presidential candidate as he accepts the Democratic nomination here this week, federal authorities said Tuesday.

The three men, all high on methamphetamine when arrested, are the subject of an assassination investigation, but so far, authorities say, it appears that they had no capacity to carry out any attack on Obama.

"The law recognizes a difference between a true threat - one that can be carried out - and the reported racist rantings of a drug addict," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said.

He said the men's plans were "more aspirational, perhaps, than operational."

The three have been charged with drug and weapons offenses but not with threatening to assassinate Obama or with other national-security-related crimes.

An affidavit released by Eid's office Tuesday showed the investigation into alleged threats began with an unnamed female who was with the men - Tharin Gartrell, 28; Shawn Robert Adolf, 33; and Nathan Johnson, 32 - while they were doing drugs in a Denver hotel room last weekend.

The woman told police that the men were calling Obama the N-word and saying he shouldn't live in the White House.

Adolf and Johnson made similar racist statements to police, but Eid said authorities determined there was no firm plot to harm Obama.

"If you're talking about a true threat, there has to be some evidence they're not just talking about it or thinking about it, especially in a drug-induced state," Eid said.

Johnson told a Denver TV station that others involved in the case had made racist statements regarding Obama and had discussed killing him Thursday, the day of his acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High.

"He don't belong in political office. Blacks don't belong in political office. He ought to be shot," Johnson told KCNC-TV on Monday in a late-night interview from jail.

When asked whether he felt there was a plot to kill Obama, Johnson said, "Looking back at it, I don't want to say yes, but I don't want to say no." He said he wasn't involved in any plot.

By Tuesday, Johnson was declining media requests for interviews.

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