Part of an affidavit signed Monday by militia leader Schaeffer Cox asserted an unnamed colonel offered to protect him some time last year when he was being investigated by the FBI. This statement was challenged Wednesday by Fort Wainwright garrison spokeswoman Linda Douglass, who said no such offer of help was made.
Cox’s affidavit accompanied a brief written by defense attorney Nelson Traverso. It gives Cox’s perspective of events in his Peacemaker’s Militia in 2010 and early 2011, a period in which he had been accused of making a plan to kill government officials.
State prosecutors have since dismissed criminal charges related to this plan, but Traverso is asking a federal judge to dismiss charges of owning illegal weapons that are keeping Cox jailed without bail.
In the two sections of the affidavit about Fort Wainwright, Cox said he came to the military installation with his family because he was worried about being attacked. A colonel “offered to give (him) what protection he could,” Cox said.
Later, Cox said a soldier named Stephen Gibson told him federal officials asked the Army for a video of his meeting with the colonel. Cox said Gibson told him the government was trying to use an Office of Children’s Services investigation into Cox’s family to instigate a conflict and kill Cox.
Cox previously mentioned being offered “political asylum” on Fort Wainwright in an interview on North Pole TV station KJNP last fall. In that interview, Cox said the Office of Children’s Services was trying to take his son, Seth, away because of a photo on Facebook of the toddler playing with ammunition.
The News-Miner asked Fort Wainwright to review Cox’s assertions about visiting the post and being offered protection.
Douglass said a legal team from post looked at Cox’ affidavit and concluded “no one at Fort Wainwright offered asylum to Mr. Cox and his family.” Further, she said there is no one at Fort Wainwright who has the authority to grant him asylum.
