In a motion opposing bail for Capitol rioter and attempted Obama assassin Taylor Taranto in custody pre-trial, federal prosecutors on Wednesday described the MAGA van-lifer’s movements and threats prior to his arrest last week in the Kalorama neighborhood of DC, including Taranto’s intent to detonate a bomb outside of the National Institute of Standards and Technology headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. What Taranto’s specific axe to grind with the NIST was – as opposed to more conventional targets of right wing rage and paranoia like the FBI, Justice Department, CDC, National Institutes of Health, CIA, IRS, Federal Reserve, etc – was not made clear.
“[Taylor] made several statements indicating that he intended to blow up his vehicle at NIST that he was on a ‘one way mission,’ and that the vehicle was self-driving so he would not have to be anywhere near it when it ‘went off,'” the prosecutors wrote, just shortly after describing the van as a “2000 black Chevrolet Express G1500,” a model decades too old to have self-driving capability.
The motion then details Taranto’s movements just prior to his arrest the next day, that he had exited the non-self driving vehicle and was walking around Kalorama talking about “entrance points,” said he had “control” of the block and “had them surrounded,” with his next objective to find the “tunnels underneath their houses.” Secret Service agents then closed in on Taranto and he was arrested in a wooded area nearby after a brief chase. A search of his van by DC Metro police and FBI bomb squads found two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, but no explosives.