Armed to the gills, this Georgia militiaman declared himself ready to die for the cause - vowing to seize control of the tiny town of Sweetwater and round up the traitors blocking the indictment of President Barack Obama for his treasonous turn as commander-in-chief.
It was a plan Darren Wesley Huff revealed over and over again to a slew of people, from a bank manager in his hometown to the FBI to Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers to a talk-radio audience.
Thanks in large part to his public confessions, Huff faces his own indictment on federal charges of ferrying guns and ammunition across state lines with the purpose of inciting riotous violence.
The man who Huff said inspired him to act - Monroe County resident and "sworn Obama enemy" Walter Fitzpatrick - also faces indictment in state court.
Obama? He's still the unindicted leader of the free world.
The case is outlined in a criminal complaint filed by FBI Agent Mark Van Balen days after the planned April showdown. Huff has since been indicted and is set to be arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton.
It all started last year when Fitzpatrick, a retired military man whose beef with the government goes back two decades when he faced a court-martial, tried to get a Monroe County grand jury to indict Obama for treason. The grounds? Obama, Fitzpatrick contended, was not really born in the U.S.
When the grand jury refused to consider the case, Fitzpatrick began issuing a series of "complaints," naming some two dozen federal, state and local officials, all of whom he accused of misconduct for failing to arrest, charge or remove the president from office.
He and fellow "birthers" showed up in early April at the Monroe County Courthouse to begin effecting his own "citizen's arrests" when, according to the FBI complaint, he wound up arrested instead on charges that include inciting a riot.
The FBI alleges Huff, a Dalton, Ga., man who claims membership in a militia, decided to join Fitzpatrick's cause and told anyone who would listen - including FBI agents - that he and fellow militiamen intended to show up at Fitzpatrick's April 20 preliminary hearing to seize the town if necessary to free Fitzpatrick and help him carry out his citizen's arrests.
Huff traveled from Georgia to Sweetwater with a gun on his hip, two more handguns and an AK-47 assault rifle in his truck, the complaint states. When a state trooper stopped it on traffic violations, Huff, who had a concealed carry permit, again detailed the plan, Van Balen wrote.
"Huff said he was ready to die for his rights," the agent wrote. "Huff (said) that if necessary, they would come back and have a lot more armed people to take over the courthouse and effect all the arrests."
When Huff and an estimated 20 others actually showed up at the courthouse, they were vastly outnumbered by law enforcers from federal, state and local agencies, the complaint stated. The courthouse had been effectively shut down, with workers told to stay home, and Fitzpatrick's hearing cancelled. Still, the agent wrote, Huff and others prowled the streets with guns visible.
The FBI, which had been tracking Huff throughout his travels, waited until Huff described his actions on a talk radio show and then arrested him on charges of carrying firearms across the state lines with the intent to incite a riot. Huff is free under terms of house arrest.
The Monroe County grand jury met last week to consider the case against Fitzpatrick. The results haven't been announced yet.
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