Ex-Sanders Consultant Arrested After Allegedly Planting Weapons In Jail For ‘Evil’ Escape Plot

A former consultant for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign was arrested after he allegedly planted loaded weapons and ammunition inside a Tennessee corrections facility that was under construction in an attempt to carry out a future jailbreak, authorities said.

Criminal justice reform advocate Alex Friedmann, who was not an inmate but allegedly was plotting to help prisoners escape when the facility opened, was arrested Tuesday on one count of felony vandalism, but Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said during a press conference Wednesday that the allegations go far beyond that.

The opening of the Nashville detention center, which was slated for April, was indefinitely postponed after his arrest, according to the Tennessean.

“Throughout the last several weeks it was discovered that Mr. Friedmann, over many months, had developed and implemented an extremely deliberate – and in my opinion evil – plan,” Hall said during the press conference, which was broadcast by local NBC affiliate WSMV. “Understand, this plan went far beyond vandalism. Ultimately it included planting various tools, weapons, security equipment throughout this facility. All designed to assist in a massive escape plan.”

Hall went on to describe how the weapons included loaded guns and ammunition.

Real Estate CEO In Major Democrat City Says He Can’t Convince Clients to Buy Due to Unmitigated Crime

Italy’s Move to the Right Shakes Europe’s Political Elites as Giorgia Meloni Readies to Govern

AOC Claims People Are Having Fewer Kids Because Of Capitalism

Gran Abuelo In Chile Could Be World’s Oldest Living Tree

CNN to Be Sold to Fox News? That Would Be Hilarious

Pollster: Those Polls Might Be Even Better Than You Think for GOP

Obamas Park in Handicapped Spot For Two Hours While Dining at Trendy Sushi Restaurant in Los Angeles

‘They Will Lose’: Jen Psaki Concedes Democrats Can’t Let Midterms Be About Biden

Biden Makes Securing U.S. Jobs Easier for Border Crossers, Illegal Aliens

Chaos Erupts as Large Group of Juveniles Brazenly Loot and Destroy Wawa Food Market in Philadelphia

Buttigieg Explains To Texans Why They Should Buy Electric Vehicles

Trump Slams Former ‘Great Friend,’ Now ‘Ungrateful’ DeSantis

Videos Show Audience Booing Nancy Pelosi at NYC Music Festival

Watch: Elton John Looks Shocked as Biden Says It’s ‘His Fault That We’re Spending $6B’ on HIV and AIDS

NYC: ‘I Killed Two Police Officers and My Religion Made Me Do It’

“What disturbed me most is not that this was about an escape,” he said. “It was also about loss of life.”

Friedmann worked with the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as one of several consultants who educated him on criminal justice issues. It resulted in Sanders introducing a bill aimed at eliminating private prisons. Friedmann told The Atlantic in 2015 that the bill did not go far enough to achieve that goal.

“It appears to be more for political purposes than to actually address the many problems in our criminal justice system,” he told the publication.

Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Sheriff Hall said the arrest came after an investigation stemming from a previous case involving Friedmann, who was arrested in January on charges including attempted burglary for allegedly posing as a construction worker to enter a different detention center multiple times, stealing keys, and diagraming the layout of the center, which was still being built and not in use at the time.

A press release from the sheriff’s office said that corrections officials noticed on Dec. 30 that two keys were missing. They viewed surveillance video and saw someone dressed as a construction worker who matched Friedmann’s description taking a key ring, then coming back and replacing it with two keys missing.