Associated Press
WHITEFISH, Mont. — Police say David Burgert is a trouble-making blowhard and his alleged "Project 7" assassination plot is probably fantasy.
But they are watching their backs.
"You never know. A lot of people thought something like the World Trade Center would never happen," police chief Bill Dial said.
Investigators believe Burgert’s group was plotting to trigger an anti-government revolution. Detectives say they discovered it last month when a Project 7 member tipped them off after Burgert beat him up.
According to Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont, the conspirators planned to kill judges, prosecutors and police officers in such numbers that the National Guard would be sent in. Then the troops would be killed, forcing the federal government into the fray and sparking a national uprising.
How serious was the plot?
Project 7 amassed a huge arsenal — machine guns, 30,000 rounds of ammunition, explosives, night-vision equipment, body armor and booby traps — that Dupont estimates may have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The police chief will not say how Burgert or Project 7 paid for the arsenal.
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