United States v. Doggart, No. 17-5813 (6th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this Case
Doggart, a nuclear engineer and former congressional candidate, believed that an Islamic community, “Islamberg,” was plotting a terrorist attack against New York City and began posting on Facebook that Islamberg had to be “utterly destroyed.” The FBI used a confidential informant to engage with him. Doggart recruited the informant to help him, describing the weapons they would use. Doggart traveled to meet with those he had enlisted, including the informant. After his arrest, Doggart (age 65) agreed to plead guilty to transmitting a threat to kill or injure someone in interstate commerce, 18 U.S.C. 875(c). The district court rejected the agreement for want of a factual basis. The government then charged Doggart with solicitation, 18 U.S.C. 373; solicitation to damage religious property, section 247; solicitation to commit federal arson, section 844(i); and making a threat in interstate commerce by telephone, 844(e). Convicted, Doggart was sentenced to 235 months.
The Sixth Circuit remanded, finding that the court wrongly denied him the benefit of his plea bargain by applying the wrong legal test for true threats. On remand, the district court concluded that Doggart made a threat but refused to accept the plea bargain as not adequately reflecting the severity of his conduct. The Sixth Circuit affirmed in part. The court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting the Criminal Rule 11(c)(1)(A) plea deal. The court reversed the conviction for solicitation to commit federal arson; the target of the crime—a mosque—is not “used in” interstate commerce or in any activity affecting interstate commerce. The court agreed that “intentionally defac[ing], damag[ing], or destroy[ing]” religious “real property” using “a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire,” necessarily involve the use of “physical force,” a “crime of violence” under the solicitation statute.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on October 18, 2018.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.