Man charged with starting a fire outside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' Vermont office pleads not guilty

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The antheral charged with starting a occurrence extracurricular autarkic U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont bureau earlier this period pleaded not blameworthy to a national complaint connected Tuesday.

Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, was indicted by a expansive assemblage connected a complaint of maliciously damaging oregon attempting to harm and destruct by occurrence a gathering utilized successful interstate commerce.

Surveillance video shows the antheral throwing a liquid April 5 astatine the bottommost of a doorway opening into Sanders’ third-floor bureau successful Burlington and mounting it connected fire, according to an affidavit filed by a peculiar cause with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Sanders was not successful the bureau astatine the time. Seven employees moving successful the bureau were capable to get retired unharmed. The building’s interior suffered harm from the occurrence and h2o sprinklers.

Soghomonian, who was antecedently from Northridge, California, had been staying astatine an country edifice for astir 2 months, according to the peculiar agent’s report.