Former chemistry student pleads guilty to chemical weapons charge

A Wisconsin man who threatened to use chlorine gas against officials if they attempted to take his guns has pleaded guilty to possessing material used in the production of toxic chemicals, also called chemical weapons precursors.

Prosecutors said James Morgan, a former chemistry student, had expressed a desire to form a militia and frequently used racist, and anti-government rhetoric. He also conducted experiments with lethal chemicals.

Morgan's attorneys described him as a recovering alcoholic who "talks a big game, but his actions betray those words".

He is already serving a two-year sentence for possessing homemade pipe bombs and faces up to life in prison on the chemical weapons charge.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers were tipped off about Morgan as early as 2019, according to court documents.

He posted online about creating a device to spray acid which would "chemically burn commies alive and melt their faces off for $10".

Over the years he is alleged to have made a variety of homemade weapons, including a gun that could create chlorine gas, and often boasted about them online.

In his posts on Facebook, Instagram and the fringe social media platform Gab, Morgan detailed racist and anti-government views.

Morgan, who also went by the name Karactus Blome, studied chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2022 and 2023, according to court documents.

Despite his public posts – including comments about police officers visiting him in 2019 – and getting evicted from an apartment in part because he had a homemade flamethrower, Morgan was not arrested until December 2023.

FBI agents confronted him at the McDonald's where he worked in Janesville, Wisconsin, about 100 miles north-west of Chicago.

In searches of his home and storage units, agents found pipe bombs with nails stuck to them, along with black powder, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, other chemicals and guns.

He pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to two years in prison for possession of the improvised explosive devices.

When questioned by FBI agents, Morgan told authorities he and his late father made the bombs to protect themselves from Black Lives Matter and antifa activists.

In court filings, Morgan's lawyers portrayed him as a recovering alcoholic and a racist, yet argued that he did not commit any violent acts and co-operated with investigators.

Morgan pleaded guilty to the chemical weapons charge in court in Milwaukee on Monday. His sentencing date is set for 1 August.