Men Who Conspired to Attack Government Buildings & Employees Sentenced

By Charlie Bauder, WNEG, Toccoa

The two northeast Georgia men who pleaded guilty earlier this year in connection to an alleged plot to attack the U.S. government will spend the next five years in prison.

United States District Judge Richard W. Story sentenced 68-year-old Dan Roberts of Toccoa and 73-year-old Frederick Thomas of Cleveland, Georgia each to five years in federal prison Wednesday during a sentencing hearing held in federal court in Gainesville.

Roberts and Thomas pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiring to obtain an unregistered explosive device and silencer.

The men were arrested last November and accused by the government of working to purchase a silencer and explosives and use them to attack government buildings and federal employees, including law enforcement agents.

Following the completion of their prison terms, the two men will also each have three years of supervised release.