UPDATE 4-Leader of armed group at U.S. border boasted of assassination training -FBI

The man who leads an armed group that stops migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border allegedly boasted of training volunteers to kill former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an FBI agent said in court papers. Larry Hopkins, the leader of the United Constitutional Patriots who was arrested on Saturday, appeared in court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday to face charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The FBI said it found guns during a 2017 visit to his home.

The UCP says it has helped the U.S. Border Patrol detain some 5,600 migrants in New Mexico in the last 60 days. Its members are armed and wear camouflage uniforms while on patrol along the border. Defense attorney Kelly O'Connell said Hopkins planned to plead not guilty and noted that the charges were unrelated to UCP's actions at the border.

"This is not even dealing with what's going on right here," O'Connell said. The UCP has said its two-month presence at the border was intended to support U.S. Border Patrol, which has been overwhelmed by record numbers of Central American families seeking asylum.

The FBI in court papers said that while it was investigating allegations of "militia extremist activity" in 2017, witnesses accused Hopkins of saying the UCP was training to assassinate Obama; Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016; and George Soros, a financier who supports liberal causes. The American Civil Liberties Union and other critics accuse the UCP of being a "fascist militia" whose members illegally detain and kidnap migrants by impersonating law enforcement.

New Mexico's Democratic Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, on Friday ordered an investigation of the UCP. She said "menacing or threatening migrant families and asylum-seekers is absolutely unacceptable and must cease." "NOT BREAKING ANY LAWS"

FBI Special Agent David Gabriel said in a criminal complaint that in October 2017 the agency received reports a militia was being run out of Hopkins' home in Flora Vista, New Mexico. When agents entered the home they collected nine firearms, ranging from pistols to rifles, Horton was illegally in possession of as he had at least one prior felony conviction, according to the complaint.

Hopkins, the UCP's national commander, told the agents that his common-law wife owned the weapons in question, according to court papers. UCP spokesman Jim Benvie said the group's aim was to publicize the "border crisis" through near-daily videos posted online.

"Bringing up people's past from years ago is getting a little old," said Benvie, referring to the charge against Hopkins. "We're not breaking any laws, we're not pointing guns at people, we're not putting anybody in jeopardy, including the illegal immigrants." (Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, Editing by Scott Malone, Tom Brown and David Gregorio)