A Virginia man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after amassing over 150 pipe bombs and using a photograph of President Joe Biden for target practice. At a shooting range, he declared, “We need to bring back political assassinations.”

Brad Spafford, aged 36, received his sentence following a guilty plea earlier this year. He was charged with possessing a firearm in violation of the National Firearms Act and having an unregistered destructive device.

“The creation and accumulation of explosive devices by Spafford posed a significant threat to both himself and the public,” stated Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who was not involved in the James Comey prosecution. “This sentencing, along with Spafford’s own injuries, should be a strong warning to anyone contemplating the making of homemade explosives.”

The investigation took off in January 2023 when a neighbor, who was also a law enforcement officer, alerted the FBI about Spafford’s activities and became a confidential informant for the agency. Court documents reveal that Spafford was treated in an emergency room in July 2021 after suffering serious injuries, including the complete amputation of his right thumb and partial amputation of his right middle and index fingers. These injuries, along with hearing loss and scalp lacerations, resulted from a mishap with a “launcher” on a family member’s property in rural Virginia, where Spafford frequently detonated homemade explosives, as reported in a DOJ press release issued Thursday.

The DOJ release also noted that Spafford misleadingly told hospital staff his injuries were due to fireworks.

The confidential source reported several alarming behaviors attributed to Spafford, who frequently expressed strong opposition to government regulations, especially those related to firearms and other weaponry. Among the materials Spafford used in creating his explosive devices was Tannerite, a binary explosive often employed in long-range target practice for its explosive reaction when hit by a high-velocity projectile.

“In June 2023, after shooting at the range with the CHS, Spafford stated that ‘we need to bring back political assassinations,’ to which [a family member] responded, ‘for real,’” prosecutors wrote in a statement of facts. “During that conversation, Spafford discussed making Tannerite with a substance that makes it as strong as dynamite, and stated he likes to set it off with homemade blasting caps.”

Spafford admitted to creating a special solution that would “remove DNA and fingerprints” from weapons that he practiced with.

“He was using homemade targets with photographs of the President for target practice,” the informant stated. At the time of the comment, Biden was the sitting president.

Roughly two weeks after the near-miss assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Spafford sent the informant a text message that read, “Bro I hope the shooter doesn’t miss Kamala.” The comment came shortly after then-Vice President Kamala Harris announced her intention to run for president.

On one occasion, the informant reported that he heard Spafford tell a family member that he kept hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD) stored in a deep freezer on the premises. Prosecutors described HMTD as a “peroxide-based primary explosive” that is “highly sensitive and easily detonated as a result of impact friction, or temperature changes.”

Spafford also told the informant that he had an AR-15 that he had modified into a short-barreled rifle. He stated that the weapon was not registered because he “doesn’t believe in any of that,” expressing his desire to install a .50 caliber firearm on the roof of the house, saying, “They can’t get close enough if I’m mowin’ down on my fifty cal,” per the statement of facts.

When authorities arrested Spafford and executed a search warrant on the home in December 2024, he initially claimed that any explosive materials were from fireworks.

In addition to the HMTD, authorities said they recovered about “155 improvised explosive devices” that “appeared to be homemade bombs” in an unlocked garage that also stored “household items and children’s toys.” The HMTD was located in a freezer in the garage, “stored near Hot Pockets, popsicles, and Go-GURT.”

“Among the IEDs analyzed were some with propellant capabilities consistent with use in a launcher and IEDs capable of causing property damage, personal injury, or death,” the DOJ release said Thursday. “Investigators also recovered bomb-making equipment, along with riot gear … two empty grenade canisters, an improvised mine, precursor chemicals for explosive materials, and numerous rounds of homemade ammunition.”