'Natural born conservative' accused of threatening to kill congressman has history of extremist views on Facebook
A Virginia man who was accused on Friday of threatening to kill a U.S. congressman described himself as a “natural born conservative” in a lawsuit last year and appears to have a Facebook account where he expressed anti-Muslim and conspiratorial views as well as posted memes supportive of President Donald Trump.
Wallace Godwin, 69, was charged in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia with one count of threatening to murder and assault a U.S. official. In unveiling the charge, prosecutors said it was based on a confrontation that took place the day before, on March 22, at the district office of Republican Rep. Scott Taylor of Virginia.
Prosecutors said Godwin was frustrated about federal marijuana policy and allegedly made the threat to one of Taylor’s staffers.
“Scott is having an event this Saturday. I am going to get my shotgun and do something about this. I’ll just handle this myself," Godwin said, according to federal court documents.
The court documents allege that Godwin then pointed at two staffers in the room and said: “You two are next.”
Prosecutors said that if convicted Godwin could face 10 years in prison.
This wasn’t the first time Godwin had been volatile around Taylor and his staff, according to court records.
In an incident last year, Godwin allegedly drove to the Virginia congressman’s house and blocked Taylor’s car with his own. He told Taylor he wanted to talk about marijuana policy. The congressman told Goldwin to leave, and Godwin left “without further incident,” according to court records.
In another confrontation last year, the records said, Godwin went to Taylor’s district office, “leaned over the reception desk, and began to yell” at a staffer. It was frightening enough that the congressman’s office reported Godwin to the U.S. Capitol Police at the time.
Godwin’s views about marijuana were also clear in a federal lawsuit he filed on June 22, 2017 in which he described himself as a “natural born conservative” and claimed the government wasn’t enforcing the Controlled Substances Act.
Godwin, who asked the court to award him $500 million, represented himself in the suit in which he named the “U.S. federal government” as the sole defendant.
The lawsuit didn’t make any substantial legal argument or cite specific evidence for his claim. Instead, Godwin attached a printout from the website of Americans for Safe Access, an organization that advocates for the legalization of medical marijuana. The page Godwin included explained that “cannabis is still illegal under federal law” despite medical marijuana laws in many of the states. (An more-recent version of the page can be found on the organization’s website.)
Godwin also added a personal statement in his lawsuit:
Know your facts! I am a natural born conservative. Read the Federal law on marijuana. President Nixon ignored the Federal law on marijuana. Marijuana has been altering the minds of the American people since the early 60's. Check my facts! This is the FACT!
The statement was followed by Godwin’s name, home address in Virginia Beach, Virginia, as well as his home and cell phone numbers.
An assistant U.S. attorney in Norfolk ended up filing a 12-page response to Godwin’s lawsuit and asked for it to be thrown out.
A federal judge dismissed the suit less than four months after Godwin filed it.
Godwin also appears to have used a Facebook account under the name Wally Godwin, listed as a resident of Virginia Beach, to make some of the same criticisms of marijuana policy that he did in the lawsuit.
In fact, the account was used to post several marijuana-related comments last year on a video from the same congressman Godwin is accused of threatening.
The video, which was streamed live on Taylor’s Facebook page, showed the congressman speaking at a February 20, 2017 town hall in Virginia Beach.
“I am a natural born conservative,” Godwin wrote, using a phrase that would be repeated in the lawsuit four months later. “We had a law against Marijuana when Nixon was President it has become a Forgotten law.”
Beyond gripes about marijuana, Godwin’s Facebook account also promoted an array of far-right content, including conspiracy theories and posts that showed anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant views. He also reposted multiple memes that were supportive of President Trump.
Two days before Godwin’s arrest, the account shared a post from WikiLeaks that talked the “deep state,” something that has turned into a well-traveled conspiracy theory among the far right during the Trump administration.
Godwin’s account also included a variety of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and other far-right posts.
In one, he shared a video mentioning Sharia law, an Islamic concept that has been the source of wild conspiracy theories in anti-Muslim circles. The video included claims like “Sharia orders death for any Muslim or non Muslim who critics (sic) the Quran.”
Godwin also shared a post calling on President Trump to “BAN ISLAM IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS.”
The account also showed that Godwin was part of a Facebook group called “Stop the War on Christianity and White America,” which has about 7,500 members and traffics in bigoted memes and white victimhood.
The account also praised the president’s extreme immigration views, including one video that depicted Trump as a construction worker stacking cement blocks to build a border wall.
