Florida lawyer pleads guilty to attempted embassy bombing

A Florida attorney has pleaded guilty to attempting to detonate explosives outside the Chinese embassy in Washington DC and blowing up a statue of Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin in Texas.

Christopher Rodriguez pleaded guilty to damaging property occupied by a foreign government, damaging federal property with explosive materials, and possessing an unregistered firearm, according to documents filed in a federal court in the US capital on Friday.

According to the court filings, Rodriguez drove to Washington DC from his home in Panama City, Florida, last September, carrying 15 pounds (7kg) of tannerite, a commercially available explosive that detonates when struck by a high-velocity bullet.

Rodriguez concealed the tannerite in a backpack, which he placed behind the back wall of the embassy. He then opened fire on the backpack with a rifle, but missed and fled the scene. 

The 45-year-old Army veteran was arrested in Louisiana in November, and charged after DNA evidence linked him to the backpack. He had previously been searched by police officers in California in 2021, who confiscated three firearms and two containers of tannerite from his vehicle.

The attempted detonation at the embassy was Rodriguez’s second crime involving tannerite. In November 2022, he drove to San Antonio, Texas, where a sculpture called ‘Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head’ was on display on the grounds of the Texas Public Radio building.

The artwork depicts a diminutive and nude rendering of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong perched atop a giant bust of Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. 

Rodriguez scaled an eight-foot fence, placed two canisters of tannerite at the base of the sculpture, then climbed to the roof of a nearby building and shot the canisters. The resulting explosion caused “significant damage” to the sculpture, court documents stated.

Rodriguez accepted a plea deal, and will be sentenced in October. Under the terms of the deal, he will receive a prison sentence of between seven and ten years.

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