A criminal defense attorney in Florida on Friday pleaded guilty to attempting to bomb the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., in September last year, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced.
Christopher Rodriguez, 45, also admitted bombing a "satirical" sculpture of communist leaders Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong in San Antonio, Texas, in November 2022. He pleaded guilty to damaging property occupied by a foreign government, explosive materials-malicious damage to federal property, and receipt or possession of an unregistered firearm (destructive device).
According to court documents, Rodriguez drove from his home in Panama City, Fla., to Virginia with a rifle and 15 pounds of explosive material on Sept. 23-24, 2023. En route, he stopped to buy a black backpack, nitrile gloves, and a burner cell phone. On Sept. 24, he used the burner phone to call a taxi to drive him near to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China.
Between midnight and 3 a.m., Rodriguez planted the backpack, filled with explosives, next to a street light near the back wall of the embassy. He then attempted to detonate it by shooting at it with the rifle. He missed the target, however, and the explosives failed to detonate.
BREAKING: A Florida lawyer has admitted he attempted to blow up a portion of a wall outside the Chinese Embassy in D.C. last year — and to his previously unknown involvement in an explosion outside Texas Public Radio HQ in 2022.
— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) August 2, 2024
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Law enforcement later found the backpack still containing the explosive materials, along with three shell casings and bullet fragmentations and impact marks along the embassy wall. DNA found on the backpack was linked to Rodriguez from a prior arrest in California in June 2021, and a buccal swab confirmed the match.
In November 2022, Rodriguez rented a vehicle in Pensacola, Fla., and drove to San Antonio, Texas. On Nov. 7, at around 2:25 a.m., he scaled an eight-foot fence to enter a courtyard where a satirical, anti-communist sculpture titled "Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin's Head" was on display. He placed two canisters of explosives at the base of the sculpture, and used a rifle to successfully detonate them, causing "significant" damage to the sculpture.
Rodriguez was arrested by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in Lafayette, La., on Nov. 4, 2023, and has remained in custody since.
--with reporting by TMX
