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Comment by mmcwilliams | Hacker News Reader

It might be the case right now but it came out earlier this year that the CIA was entertaining this idea in 2017. This [0] appears to be the originating story and there are corroborating accounts in many other outlets.

[0] https://news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london...

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> It might be the case right now but it came out earlier this year that the CIA was entertaining this idea in 2017.

CIA, DoD, and lots of agencies “entertain” lots of ideas, and even develop plans, for lots of things that never get close to being policy.

Planning to commit a murder or a terrorist attack is a felony that will put an individual in prison for a long time.

> Planning to commit a murder or a terrorist attack is a felony that will put an individual in prison for a long

Unless it is with other people and, more critically, at least one of the people involved goes beyond planning and takes some concrete step to advance the execution of the plan (at which point it becomes the separate crime of conspiracy), no, planning a crime, even of that seriousness, is not itself a crime.

Just writing death threat for the president online is a crime.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Buddhi

No other concrete step is needed.

A threat is not the same as planning.

Planning to kill someone is not a crime. Threatening to is, even if they aren't the President.

Yes, but whether it is a murder or not is decided in court, not by you. Not all assassination are murder.

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