{"id":22877,"date":"2025-04-02T14:38:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T20:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-doj-seeks-20-year-sentence-for-colorado-man-accused-of-tesla-arson\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T20:38:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T20:38:35","slug":"trump-doj-seeks-20-year-sentence-for-colorado-man-accused-of-tesla-arson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-doj-seeks-20-year-sentence-for-colorado-man-accused-of-tesla-arson\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump DOJ seeks 20-year sentence for Colorado man accused of Tesla arson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"President
President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to reporters as they sit in a Tesla vehicle on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11 in Washington. (Pool via AP)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Federal prosecutors have indicted a 24-year-old Fort Collins man on firearms and arson charges in connection with a March 7 incident at a Tesla dealership in Loveland.<\/p>\n

Cooper Jo Frederick, who was previously arrested by Loveland police and charged with multiple felonies under Colorado state law, was taken into custody in Texas after a federal investigation, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video posted to social media Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Frederick is accused of igniting an unspecified \u201cincendiary device\u201d near the Loveland Tesla building, which started a small fire \u201cbetween two vehicles\u201d that was extinguished by a responding officer, according to the Loveland Police Department\u2019s account of the incident.<\/p>\n

In the federal indictment, filed on March 27 by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Denver, Frederick was charged with one count of possessing a \u201cdestructive device\u201d and one count of attempting to \u201cdamage and destroy, by means of fire and explosive materials, vehicles used in interstate or foreign commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Attorney
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference Feb. 12 at the Justice Department in Washington. (Ben Curtis\/Associated Press file)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Ben Curtis, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bondi called the incident part of \u201ca wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties.\u201d Elon Musk, the electric car company\u2019s CEO and the world\u2019s richest person, has been the target of nationwide protests for his extraordinary involvement in President Donald Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign and the early actions taken by his administration, including the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its spree of mass firings and attempted agency shutdowns.<\/p>\n

The March 7 fire at the Loveland Tesla location followed at least three other instances of attempted arson or vandalism at the same property this year, according to police. Dozens of similar incidents have been reported across the country and even in other countries around the world. Trump\u2019s Department of Justice last week launched a task force to investigate the incidents.<\/p>\n

Frederick\u2019s indictment indicates that federal prosecutors will move to keep him in pretrial detention and seek a prison sentence of up to 20 years if convicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these cases are a serious threat to public safety,\u201d Bondi said. \u201cTherefore, there will be no negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. attorney general called the incident part of \u2018a wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2478,168,28,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-act-of-terror","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22877"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}