A 36-year-old man in Virginia is likely heading to prison after authorities said he stockpiled more than 150 finished pipe bombs and used a photograph of then-President Joe Biden as target practice while espousing a need to “bring back political assassinations.”

Brad Spafford on Friday formally pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm in violation of the National Firearms Act and possession of an unregistered destructive device, court documents show.

According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the investigation into Spafford began in January 2023 when a neighbor, who was also a law enforcement officer, spoke to someone at the FBI about Spafford’s behavior and became a confidential human source (CHS) for the bureau. The CHS said Spafford had recently lost three fingers while producing homemade explosives.

The informant relayed a series of troubling behaviors from Spafford, who repeatedly espoused disdain for most forms of government regulations, particularly those in connection with firearms and other weapons.

One of the components Spafford used in constructing explosive devices was Tannerite, a brand of binary explosive shooting target designed to blow up when struck by a high-velocity bullet and used mostly for long-range target practice.

“In June 2023, after shooting at the range with the CHS, Spafford stated that ‘we need to bring back political assassinations,”‘ to which [a family member] responded, ‘for real,'” prosecutors wrote in a statement of facts. “During that conversation, Spafford discussed making Tannerite with a substance that makes it as strong as dynamite, and stated he likes to set it off with homemade blasting caps.”

After Spafford explained how he created a special solution that would “remove DNA and fingerprints” from weapons, the defendant invited the informant to “go shooting” with him, saying, “he was using homemade targets with photographs of the President for target practice.” At the time of the comment, Biden was the sitting president.

In a similar vein, authorities say that about two weeks after the near-miss assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Spafford sent the informant a text message that read, “Bro I hope the shooter doesn’t miss Kamala.” The comment came shortly after then-Vice President Kamala Harris announced her intention to run for president.

While giving the informant a tour of a property recently purchased by Spafford’s family members, the informant heard Spafford tell a family member that he kept hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD) stored in a deep freezer on the premise. Prosecutors described HMTD as “peroxide-based primary explosive” that is “highly sensitive and easily detonated as a result of impact friction, or temperature changes.”

Spafford also reportedly told the informant that he had an AR-15 that he had modified into a short-barrel rife. He stated that the weapon was not registered because he “doesn’t believe in any of that,” and expressed his desire to install a 50-caliber firearm on the roof of the house, saying, “They can’t get close enough if I’m mowin’ down on my fifty cal,” per the statement of facts.

When authorities arrested Spafford and executed a search warrant on the home in December 2024, he initially claimed that any explosive materials were from fireworks.

In addition to the HMTD, authorities said they recovered about “155 improvised explosive devices” that “appeared to be homemade bombs” in an unlocked garage that also stored “household items and children’s toys.” The HMTD was located in a freezer in the garage “stored near Hot Pockets, popsicles, and Go Gurt.”

Spafford, who has been in detention since his arrest, is currently scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen for sentencing on Dec. 18, 2025.