A contractor from Illinois bidding to build the president’s Mexican border wall was arrested Tuesday in connection with the bombing of a mosque in Minnesota and a women’s clinic in his home state.
Michael B. Hari, 47, was arrested Tuesday. Two other men have also been arrested in connection with the bombings. Hari was charged with arson and possession of machine guns, and was charged in federal court in Illinois.
Hari’s arrest comes the same day Trump visited the border wall prototypes being erected on the US-Mexico border. Hari’s submitted wall proposal had a pedestrian walkway at the top for recreation, and he likened it to the Great Wall Of China.
Hari and his accomplices, Michael McWhorter , 29, and Joe Morris, 22, are alleged to be responsible for the bombing of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center, in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Aug. 5, 2017.
They are also accused of an attempted bombing of the Women’s Health Practice in Champaign, Illinois, on Nov. 7.
Scroll for video
Hari, who has a criminal record, is pictured in a previous mugshot, after being arrested Tuesday for his connection to bombing a mosque and an attempted bombing at a woman’s health clinic that performed abortions
Hari, an Illinois contractor, is pictured in an undated photo, after being arrested in connection with two bombings and being found in possession of machine guns
The FBI pictured evidence from the mosque bombing which left extensive damage
President Donald Trump reviewed border wall prototypes, Tuesday, the same day Hari was arrested for his connection to a mosque bombing after submitting a bid for the wall
McWhorter admitted his own involvement after confidential informants told the FBI that Hari said he would pay McWhorter and Morris $18,000 for their participation in the mosque bombing, according to the FBI affidavit.
The men drove to Minnesota in a rented truck, according to the federal affidavit, reported by the Huffington Post.
There were five parishioners in the mosque when it was bombed. Thankfully no one was hurt.
However, ‘the pipe bomb, constructed of polyvinyl chloride, known as ‘PVC,’ exploded, causing extensive damage,’ according to the Department of Justice.
McWhorter confessed to the FBI that he, Hari and Morris bombed the mosque to ‘scare [Muslims] out of the country’ because they think they push their beliefs on non-Muslims. McWhorter said the bombing was mostly to say, ‘Hey, you’re not welcome here, get the fuck out.’
The bombing came on the heels of rising anti-Muslim hate after Trump’s apparent refusal to denounce it.
When the bombing happened, a now former Deputy Assistant to the President, Sebastian Gorka, defended the president’s lack of condemnation of the bombing itself.
‘When we have some kind of finalized investigation, absolutely,’ Gorka said on MSNBC when asked about a response.
‘There’s a great rule; all initial reports are false, you have to check them you have to know who the perpetrators are. We’ve had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes by right-wing individuals that actually turned out to have been propagated by the left.’s.’
The second alleged attack by the trio was on a women’s health clinic that performed abortions. The bomb did not detonate.
McWhorter and Morris were also charged with federal arson.
Hari, who has a documented criminal history, including taking his two daughters to South America and went on the run for months, is a former sheriff’s deputy who lives in Charence, Illinois, where he ran Crisis Resolution Security Services Inc., the company that put in a bid for the border wall.
The Crisis Resolution Security Services Inc.’s proposal to build the wall has a promotional video on YouTube.
A narrator hails ‘culturally significant, a powerful architectural statement of the determination of the American people to defend their nation and its Anglo-Saxon heritage, western culture, and English language’ and would defend ‘our way of life from other people who have different value systems.’
‘Build that wall. Make America great again,’ the narrator says.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune last year, Hari said his company’s wall design would be akin to the Great Wall of China, in which people would be able to walk on it, via a pedestrian roadway on top of the wall.
‘People can go up there, walk it or bicycle it,’ Hari said. ‘We’re probably the only ones who have submitted a proposal making it recreational.’
Hari’s company’s website also warned of a threat by Muslims in America.
‘Since the 9/11 attacks, 1.6 million Muslims have been admitted to the United States, 26% of Muslims in the US are homegrown converts, and 80% of Muslim prison inmates converted in prison,’ the website claimed.
‘While many Muslims are peaceful people, only a small percentage of troublemakers will result in many incidents with a growing population of about 2.5 million Muslims total.’
Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota was bombed on August 5, 2017
Hari, 47, was arrested and charged Tuesday in federal court in lllinois with arson and possession of machine guns
The border wall prototype by Hari’s company was likened to the Great Wall Of China
The border wall prototype by Hari’s company boasted a pedestrian walk way at the top of the wall (pictured)
The site linked to the conspiracy website formerly known as World Net Daily.
Hari was found guilty of child abduction in 2006 after he took his daughters to Central America, as he feared he would lose custody.
He was ultimately tracked down by an investigator for the ‘Dr. Phil’ show, which focused on the case.
Hari was sentenced to 30 months of probation at the time.
Now, Hari has been assigned a federal public defender, and a judge has ordered him detained.