Prosecutors said Seth Aaron Pendley, who claimed he brought a sawed-off rifle to the Capitol riot, hoped to “kill off about 70% of the internet” with his.
Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah for the Northern District of Texas made the announcement Wednesday.
Seth Aaron Pendley, 28, was arrested in April after he tried to buy an explosive device from an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation employee in Fort Worth. Pendley pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hal R. Ray Jr.
According to court documents, Pendley admitted to disclosing his plan to a confidential source in January via an encrypted messaging application.
In late February, he sent this same source a list of data center addresses, noting that if they were destroyed it would “kill off about 70 percent of the internet.”
Texas man pleads guilty in plot to attack Amazon data servers Michael Williams, The Dallas Morning News
A Wichita Falls man pleaded guilty Wednesday to plotting to attack an Amazon Web Services data center an act he hoped would “kill off about 70% of the Internet,” federal authorities said.
Seth Aaron Pendley pleaded guilty to a charge of malicious attempt to destroy a building with an explosive. He faces between five and 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in federal court in October, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas.
A federal public defender who represents Pendley did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.