‘Undermines our defense’: State anti-extremism office shuts amid Trump layoffs

The U.S. Department of State is eliminating its Office of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) as part of a sweeping round of layoffs affecting more than 1,350 employees that began on Friday, Raw Story has learned.

Raw Story revealed the threat to CVE in May, as the Trump administration pressed for mass layoffs in the federal government. The layoffs were paused by court challenges but this week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favor.

The six CVE employees, who led the department’s international efforts to prevent violent extremists from radicalizing and inspiring acts of violence, are all being terminated, William Braniff, executive director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab at American University, told Raw Story.

“Eliminating the CVE office from the Department of State undermines our layered defense, allowing threats to get much closer to home before we have a chance to minimize them,” Braniff said.

“It decreases our ability to support upstream terrorism prevention programs overseas, making international terrorist recruitment easier. It decreases our ability to support rehabilitation programs, including for children born to the ISIS movement, making international terrorist ‘retention’ easier.”

Braniff was previously director of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, considered a “sister office” of CVE. He resigned in March, after the Trump administration began to dismantle the office.

Shuttering CVE flies in the face of Trump administration priorities, Braniff added.

“Overall, and in direct contrast to the stated goals of the administration, it increases the likelihood that terrorists will actually cross the U.S. border,” he said.

Ian Moss, who oversaw the CVE as deputy coordinator for counterterrorism during the Biden administration, previously told Raw Story CVE historically served as “the principal driver” in the U.S. government for “addressing racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, including white identity terrorism.”

Alongside the U.S. Department of Justice, the CVE office helped organize three Counterterrorism Law Enforcement Forums in Europe, convening law enforcement, financial regulators and policymakers to address racially and motivated violent extremism.

In Europe, the State Department is focused on countering the influence of Nordic Resistance Front and Russian Imperial Movement, two groups that were named as specially designated global terrorism entities during the Biden and first Trump administrations, respectively.

Just before President Joe Biden left office, the State Department also designated the Terrorgram Collective as a terrorist group. Terrorgram, whose two U.S. leaders were federally indicted last year, has been linked to attacks in Brazil, Slovakia and Turkey.

CVE also played a significant role in the U.S. government’s efforts to counter Islamic extremism, principally ISIS.

Moss told Raw Story CVE “worked hand-in-glove” to repatriate hundreds of women and children from Al Hol, a camp in northeast Syria for people displaced by ISIS, to their home countries in central Asia.

The office worked with the returnees’ home countries to ensure they received rehabilitative services so they could reintegrate into their communities.

“If there are not programs to de-risk these individuals, and if these individuals don’t have empowering opportunities elsewhere, they will find empowering opportunities with extremist groups again,” Braniff said.

'Idiot': Guns pulled as Proud Boys and antifascists clash in park

Militant leftists and Proud Boys clashed on a soccer field in a public park in western Kentucky over the Fourth of July weekend, escalating to members of the two opposing groups drawing firearms, according to video and a police incident report.

The armed confrontation took place on July 5 after antifascist protesters assembled in a parking lot at Thompson Berry Park in Owensboro, Kentucky, and walked towards a double chain-link fence separating the park from the backyard of a private residence where the Proud Boys were gathering.

The display of firearms took place after the Proud Boys jumped the fences and ran at the antifascist protesters. During the fracas, a woman was knocked to the ground, and the Proud Boys seized at least one of the leftists’ banners before forcing them to retreat.

The protest against the Proud Boys was organized by the Progressive Labor Party of Kentucky, a revolutionary communist group, which issued a call to “oppose the Proud Boys” in defense of “the interconnected queer community” in the midst of an ongoing effort to “remove books from the local public library.” The protest drew a contingent of antifascists from Middle Tennessee, along with Owensboro locals.

A video posted by the Bluesky account of the Nashville-based Antifascist 615 group shows a woman leading a small child inside the private residence after several Proud Boys jumped the fence to confront the leftist protesters. Another video shows a woman with the Proud Boys angrily confronting an antifascist live-streamer about one of the leftists “pointing a f---ing gun when there are kids in the way.”

The unidentified live-streamer can be heard commenting on the video, which has since been taken down but has been reviewed by Raw Story: “Actually, I am pretty p---ed off about that. I didn’t know he had a f---ing gun.” She added, “Why the f--- did he pull it in the direction that children are at — the f---ing idiot.”

Another antifascist can be heard off-camera stating that the individual who pulled the gun was from Tennessee.

Members of the Proud Boys told police officers that responded to the disturbance that “one of the protesters was ‘brandishing’ a weapon at the group,” according to an incident report. The leftist protesters, in turn, told the police that “the Proud Boys pulled multiple firearms at the group.”

It’s unclear which side drew first, but in one of the videos reviewed by Raw Story, a male voice can be heard asking, “You guys got a gun?”

About three seconds later, a man wearing a Green River Proud Boys shirt turns and walks towards another man wearing the Proud Boys customary black and yellow colors. The second man can be seen pointing back towards the residence and then handing the first man a large handgun.

“Get away from my family, now,” the Green River Proud Boy says while holding the handgun pointed to the side across his stomach. Then he throws the gun on the ground and points his finger at one of the antifascist protesters, saying, “I want to f--- you up.”

When officers arrived on the scene, they found the two groups in a verbal argument. The Proud Boys started walking back to the residence and the antifascist protesters headed back to the parking lot. The police did not make any arrests.

Mark Hammonds, the public information officer for the Owensboro Police Department, told Raw Story that the officer “determined there was no criminal acts that were actually committed.”

“This is far from the first time that armed antifascists have faced off with members of the Proud Boys,” Kieran Doyle, a research manager for the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, told Raw Story.

Doyle cited an armed standoff between antifascists and Proud Boys at the Ohio state capitol in January 2024, which similarly concluded without an exchange of fire. But in August 2020, a self-described antifascist, Michael Reinoehl, fatally shot and killed Aaron Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer. Reinhold was himself fatally shot by members of a U.S. Marshals task force before any criminal charges were brought against him.

According to data collected by ACLED since the beginning of 2020, the presence of firearms at demonstrations makes them seven times more likely to turn violent or destructive.

About an hour before the confrontation in Owensboro, the antifascist protesters called the police to report that one of the Proud Boys members rode his motorcycle into the parking lot at the park “and began to circle them while revving his engine.” Video of the incident shows the Proud Boy getting off the motorcycle and repeatedly calling a Black protester the n-word.

One of the leftist protesters told the police that the man “threatened to go get the other Proud Boys and come back to the park,” according to the incident report.

An Owensboro resident who identified himself as “Ramos” told Raw Story that more moderate leftists and liberals in the community discouraged people from attending the protest against the Proud Boys. Others, he said, proposed a less confrontational alternative such as holding a demonstration “on a busy street about a mile away.”

Ramos defended the decision to approach the private residence where the Proud Boys were gathering.

“I think it was necessary that they saw us so they knew anytime you want to be in our hometown and spread racism, people will be there to stop you,” he said. “We were saying, ‘Hey, we don’t stand for that.’”

Ramos told Raw Story he saw the Proud Boys draw guns but didn’t observe anyone from the antifascist side with firearms.

The Progressive Labor Party of Kentucky, the group that organized the protest, could not be reached for this story.

The recent confrontation in Owensboro comes at a time when the United States is undergoing the “largest sustained protest movement” since 2020 and when the recent assassination of a state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota reflects rising political tensions, Doyle said. But he said that he wouldn’t view Owensboro as a national bellwether, even if it had resulted in death or injury.

The context of what took place in Owensboro is different than previous confrontations, Doyle said, noting that Portland had already undergone years of opposing demonstrations often leading to clashes before the fatal shooting in August 2020. In contrast, Owensboro has only seen peaceful protests since 2020, according to ACLED’s data.

“Still, it’s never wise to encourage anything other than vigilance, especially when it comes to the behavior of extremist groups,” Doyle said. “It’s also likely that any escalation of tensions from this incident will be most acutely felt in the community where it took place. However, it seems too soon to predict any kind of larger scale escalation based on this incident alone, especially since fortunately, no major incidents of violence appear to have taken place.”

Militia fear that forced state pullout after Helene puts future aid at risk

Last October, after Hurricane Helene devastated swathes of the U.S. southeast, a surge of misinformation stoked by right-wing public figures fueled open hostility towards the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in affected states.

On the national stage, figures including Donald Trump, the then-GOP presidential nominee, claimed the Biden administration was not helping Republican areas. In remote hollers of western North Carolina, bands of men appeared, equipped for war, asking questions of official responders.

As exclusively revealed by Raw Story this week, the apparent threat was strong enough to prompt one state medical assistance team to evacuate a field clinic in rural Yancey County — raising questions about potential danger to federal and state disaster responders that still linger, amid another hurricane season.

According to a FEMA contract worker assigned to the team who spoke to Raw Story on condition of anonymity, the proximate cause of the Yancey County evacuation was an alarming report of snipers on rooftops and a social media post threatening government workers.

Then, according to the FEMA worker, an encounter with three unfamiliar men asking about the team’s sleeping accommodations tipped the decision to pack up and leave, under cover of night.

“There was some rumors going around… that some of the militia guys up there was going to provoke violence on FEMA employees,” Jerry Zimmerman, a paramedic who went home prior to the evacuation, told Raw Story.

“To the extent of that violence, I don’t know. Which is one of the reasons, to my understanding, why they decided to evacuate. It was becoming very violent on that site.”

Zimmerman said Dr. Tripp Winslow, medical director for the state Office of Emergency Medical Services, called him after the evacuation and described an atmosphere of hostility.

Winslow declined to comment. But others said suspicions centered on Savage Freedoms, a volunteer disaster response group composed largely of former and current Special Forces operators.

Such suspicions were based in part on the FEMA worker’s assertion that a man who asked about sleeping accommodations wore a shirt featuring the group’s insignia.

Savage Freedoms’ leader, Adam Smith, said the group had a small team about 20 miles away from the Yancey County site, but said he didn’t believe his group prompted the evacuation.

“The question of whether Savage Freedoms was on site? Absolutely,” the FEMA worker said. “Were they threatening people? Unknown.”

A spokesperson for the NC Department of Health and Human Services said the team left the site on Oct. 12 due to an unspecified “concern.” Sheriff Shane Hilliard told Raw Story state officials reported the matter.

“When we went down there, we saw no sign of the militia,” Hilliard said. “We saw the same thing we had seen before: Citizens and volunteers carrying firearms in a safe and secure manner for their protection.”

‘A militia threat’

In western North Carolina, many residents routinely carry guns for self-protection. After Helene, in many communities, groups of veterans were first on the ground. An array of groups wielded heavy weaponry and tactical gear, with varying degrees of expertise.

By the time the state medical team arrived at Big Creek Free Will Baptist Church in Yancey County on Oct. 8, a team led by Nathaniel Kavakich, a former Marine Corps machine gunner from the Pittsburgh area, was already on the ground.

“I know there was guys that were kind of overbearing; they were armed with AR-15s and they had plate carriers visible,” Marlon Jonnaert, a Marine Corps veteran who used a special radio to help land helicopters at the site, told Raw Story.

“That’s legal, whether or not that looks threatening. That’s the gray zone challenge that they did not know how to handle.”

“Gray zone” is a military strategy term that, according to a 2022 article by the Atlantic Council, describes “gradualist campaigns by state and non-state actors that combine non-military and quasi-military tools and fall below the threshold of armed conflict.”

Representatives of DHHS and NC Emergency Management did not respond to a question about whether they reported concerns about potential for violence at the Yancey County site to law enforcement.

The NC State Bureau of Investigation did not receive any request to investigate alleged militia threats against state and federal medical personnel in Yancey County, a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for the FBI Charlotte Division told Raw Story the agency “does not comment whether a specific person, agency, or organization contacts us,” adding: “I can confirm we worked with multiple law enforcement partners in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.”

Jonnaert said that around the time of the state medical team’s evacuation, a member of the Yancey County Emergency Operations Center called a local fire chief to relay a warning about “a militia threat that included Big Creek.”

Jonnaert said veterans and others at the Big Creek site tried to identify the source of the threat. Jonnaert also said his Marine Corps experience included a deployment to Somalia, where Marines received actionable tips from the FBI about enemy targets. The absence of any such tip in Yancey County convinced him there wasn’t much substance to the rumors of militia threats.

“I figured, ‘Yeah, the FBI would tip these guys off,’” he said. “I think the [Department of Justice] would be very interested if there was a capital-M militia threat against government employees.”

However, comments by Kavakich, the leader of the veterans group at the Big Creek Church, confirm a climate of intimidation and even echo some details in the report that prompted the evacuation.

Kavakich declined to speak to Raw Story — but described the group’s deployment in Yancey County in a podcast spanning almost two and a half hours.

He returned to the church, he said, from an outing to canvas residents to determine their needs. At the church, he noticed a change of mood.

“It’s like, ‘Wow, my baseline of these people, they’re super nice and receptive to us,’” he said. “And then they come in and you’re like, ‘Okay, why the f--- are everyone wearing plate carriers and, like, not making eye contact or talking to people?’ That kind of stuff, there was a distinct change in the way the winds were blowing, if that makes sense.

“FEMA and state and locals were trying to battle-track — there’s actual good groups there that want to help out … But then there were other people that were running around with plate carriers and rifles barking orders.

“Their mindset was, ‘I’m going to be there to help, because I’m an asset.’ But what they don’t realize is when they were doing that, they were pissing off the locals and making the locals feel uncomfortable.”

Kavakich said he encountered a group telling him they wanted “to have snipers conducting reconnaissance missions on [main supply routes]. It’s like, ‘Dude, you’re re---ded.’ Go … drown yourself in the Cane River.”

One member of the medical team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on the night before the team ended its deployment, an unidentified group pulled up jeeps and trained spotlights on the medical tent and supply trailer. Members of the same group rode around on four-wheelers, flipping off the medical workers, they said.

"What was hard was the random people dressed with two, three guns riding around on four-wheelers like they owned the place doing security patrols."

Stanly County Sheriff Jeff Crisco, who volunteered in Yancey County through the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association disaster relief program, told Raw Story he encountered an armed group from Louisiana.

“We were unfortunately [doing] body recovery, rescuing people,” Crisco said. “It wasn’t traditional, you’re-wearing-your-body-armor-and-whatnot. Yes, we were armed, but it was just our handguns. They were coming with body armor and their rifles. It definitely sparked some concern with the citizens there.”

Evan Stern, a paramedic in neighboring Mitchell County, told Raw Story locals felt annoyed by some outsiders.

“This is western North Carolina. Most people are covertly armed as a daily practice. Many people, you might classify as paramilitary. That kind of activity is not especially unusual here. It was the presence of outsiders with that affect that were carrying firearms for no good reason, was the issue. Suburbanites looking for a way to play out their fantasies.”

‘Here to hurt?’

When civilian groups make an ostentatious display of military gear, whether there’s an actual threat or not is almost beside the point, said Sam Jackson, an assistant professor at the University at Albany who studies anti-government extremism.

“There’s a case where, even if the threats aren’t real, people showing up with big guns and tactical vests and things like that are certainly going to intimidate folks, especially if these folks coming in who are heavily armed aren’t known to the local communities,” Jackson told Raw Story.

“Who the hell are these people with guns coming into our communities? Are they here to help? Are they here to hurt? Who knows?”

It’s indisputable that fear of armed actors made things worse in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, Jackson said.

“We had relief efforts that were slowed down or had to entirely pause while those relief providers figured out what the threats were on the ground and whether they were actually real, and whether they needed to lock down because a militia was coming," he said.

“All of those things keep those relief workers from actually going out and interacting with people who need their help, providing resources, all of those sorts of things.”

Exclusive: Militia fears forced medical team to flee hurricane-hit state

Late one night last October, at a church in a remote corner of Yancey County, North Carolina, government emergency medical workers participating in the response to Hurricane Helene gathered medications, records, laptops and radios, threw them into backpacks — and abandoned their field clinic.

More than two weeks after the massive storm ravaged the region, roads were badly damaged. Led by an ambulance, side lights illuminating the winding two-lane highway that follows Big Creek, the group made its way across the state line and into Tennessee.

Rumors about armed militia members threatening teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency had prompted FEMA to pause some operations. The same day in Rutherford County, roughly 70 miles from the field clinic in Yancey County, a 44-year-old man armed with an assault rifle was arrested for threatening to harm FEMA workers. In Tennessee, a sheriff said witnesses reported FEMA workers being harassed by armed people.

But the Oct. 12-13 evacuation of a state medical assistance team, including FEMA contract workers, on the order of a program director more than 250 miles away in the state capital, Raleigh, is being reported by Raw Story for the first time.

“It was late enough the community had gone to sleep,” said a FEMA contract worker who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We had a rotating cadre of [sheriff’s] deputies … They said, ‘We’re willing to set up an overnight guard.’

"The state medical team was like, ‘No, we’re not going to stay.’”

‘They know where you’re sleeping’

On Oct. 12, as darkness gathered, Dr. Tripp Winslow, medical director for the state Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) and physician for the Yancey County site, paced in the parking lot at Big Creek Free Will Baptist Church.

A medic had delivered an alarming report — of observing snipers on rooftops and viewing a social media post indicating militias were hunting FEMA.

In another part of the parking lot, three unfamiliar men approached. One inquired about the medics’ sleeping accommodations. A FEMA contract worker told Raw Story one man wore a shirt bearing the insignia of Savage Freedoms, an armed volunteer disaster response group that had become a focal point of medical workers’ concerns.

“I mentioned to Dr. Winslow: ‘We had these three people come up, and they know where we sleep. They know we’re not in the clinic at night,’” the worker told Raw Story.

“The state was like, ‘We’re not comfortable with you guys staying here, especially now that they know where you’re sleeping.’”

Asked for comment, Winslow referred questions to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

  A photo submitted to Raw Story by a member of the medical team shows Big Creek Free Will Baptist Church, where the NC Office of Emergency Medical Services set up a field clinic.

The church was a disaster-response hub for an area cut off due to a bridge washing out on the road to the county seat, Burnsville. By the time the state medical assistance team arrived, a group of military veterans, Keystone Dynamic Solutions, had established a “command center” to land helicopters for supply delivery and dispatch teams to assist residents, liaising with the church’s pastor and deacon.

Keystone, which provides tactical combat training to civilians, describes its role in the aftermath of Helene as “a crucial buffer between small isolated communities and the larger state and federal agencies.”

The Big Creek site also provided a base for the local fire chief whose volunteer department was destroyed by flooding, and a rotating set of deputies from across the state.

Marlon Jonnaert, a Marine Corps veteran who helped land helicopters at Big Creek, confirmed there was an effort to assess the threat to government and volunteer personnel.

Jonnaert told Raw Story that Stanley Holloway, the fire chief, received a phone call from the Yancey County Emergency Operations Center stating that “there was a militia threat that included Big Creek.”

Nathaniel Kavakich, leader of the Keystone Dynamic Solutions team and also a Marines veteran, said in a podcast interview he encountered 10 heavily armed men whose questions were markedly similar to those directed at the medics at Big Creek.

“Who are you with?” the men asked, according to Kavakich. “Where are you laying your head at night?”

Kavakich declined to comment.

Jonnaert told Raw Story he wouldn’t call Savage Freedoms a “militia” or characterize their actions as “threatening,” but said: “I will say that in those moments it seemed like they were energetically antagonizing the government and drawing attention to their operation.”

Adam Smith, a U.S. Army Special Forces operator turned motivational speaker who leads Savage Freedoms, told Raw Story his group deployed a “small team” to perform “human remains detection” in Relief, in Mitchell County, 22 miles from Big Creek Free Will Baptist Church.

But Smith said he doesn’t believe it was members of his team who asked questions about where medical workers slept, because the group didn’t receive its first shipment of T-shirts until late on Oct. 12 or early the next day.

“Whoever the medical team is claiming to speak to them, I don’t think it’s possible that they would have our shirt, and I don’t think it’s possible they had any affiliation,” Smith said.

Amid reports of threats across the region that weekend, Savage Freedoms found itself on the defensive, posting a video on Facebook warning against “imitators” and featuring Smith saying unnamed people “use the name to gain access” and “do things that we would not do.”

Following the arrest in Rutherford County for threatening FEMA, Smith said, a National Guard liaison visited Savage Freedoms’ base at a Harley-Davidson dealership in Swannanoa. Smith said the liaison asked: “Do you have any affiliation with any militia in North Carolina?”

“My answer was, ‘No, definitively not,’” Smith said.

Savage Freedoms’ activities also drew the attention of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, headquartered across the state at Fort Bragg. Smith told Raw Story “an individual with direct connections” to the command contacted him to inquire about “a rumor that I, Adam Smith, was leading militia forces to subvert the efforts of FEMA.”

‘Rumors about FEMA’

Hostility towards FEMA, fueled by misinformation, appeared to drive a wedge between the state EMS team and the local community, medical responders told Raw Story. With the storm cutting off communication in a region with a longstanding distrust of the federal government, conditions were ripe for rumors supercharged by partisan imperatives in the final stretch of the presidential campaign.

When the FEMA contract workers arrived in Yancey County, state counterparts advised them to remove FEMA placards from ambulances and remove FEMA IDs from their belts, the FEMA contract worker said.

“As the week that I was there went on, there was some rumors about FEMA,” Jerry Zimmerman, a paramedic on the state EMS team, told Raw Story. “That kind of started the division between the state-funded resources, and Keystone and the community.”

Zimmerman went home before the team evacuated, but on the day he left, he mentioned to Holloway “that those ambulances were FEMA-funded.” The response was “very stand-offish and very agitated,” Zimmerman recalled, adding that he apologized to Winslow for inadvertently creating a rift.

Zimmerman said the medical team wondered: “With these rumors going around, are we going to be lumped in with FEMA and is that going to cause an issue for us? It ultimately did.”

The decision to pull out was made by Kimberly Clement, program director for the state Office of Emergency Medical Services, the FEMA contract worker said. Clement referred Raw Story’s inquiry to the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

A DHHS spokesperson confirmed the evacuation, but emphasized the input of the team on the ground while sidestepping a question about the role of state officials in Raleigh in the decision.

"On Oct. 12, 2024, several members of this team contacted the NC Emergency Medical Services (NCOEMS) staff at the State Emergency Operations Center and indicated they had concern related to the current operation of the site," said Summer Tonizzo, a DHHS press assistant. "Their concern justified the team leaving the site."

Justin Graney, chief of external affairs and communications for NC Emergency Management, told Raw Story: “The misinformation that occurred surrounding Helene was unprecedented and helped to generate mischaracterizations of what the response looked like, what resources were available, and how different levels of government were working together.”

‘They felt they were abandoned’

The medical team returned to Big Creek four days later and stayed another three weeks, but the evacuation had ruptured community trust.

“Several of us felt a lot of guilt,” the FEMA contract worker said. “This community had no access … These people who normally have a doctor’s office and pharmacy 20 minutes away, now it’s a two-and-a-half hour drive — if they can make it at all.”

Zimmerman noted that the area was already cut off by flooding.

“Whenever this happened, they felt like they were abandoned,” he said. “From the community in Yancey County, they had nothing. The only thing they had was each other. We come up there and provide services for the length that we did and evacuate for our safety. It’s almost like they were abandoned again.”

Members of Keystone Dynamic Solutions criticized the evacuation.

“We do not want to downplay the concern for safety of all government employees and soldiers,” one wrote on Instagram the day after. “We disagree with the decision to withdraw those federal and state personnel that the local population is trying to trust. What we are seeing is a catastrophic loss of rapport.”

  An Instagram post by a member of the Keystone Dynamic Solutions team references the evacuation of the state medical team on the morning after.Instagram screenshot

The medical team left the Big Creek site without telling any of their counterparts, including Pastor Todd Robinson and the Keystone team, of their plan. Local residents who showed up for appointments the following day discovered the staff had vanished.

They left a trailer and tent. The FEMA contract worker who spoke on condition of anonymity said the team left behind antibiotics and steroids, but a deputy agreed to guard them. The worker said they personally kept all narcotics on their person and no controlled substances were left behind.

Ricky Wilson, who lives next to the church, told Raw Story: “The militia teams that was supposedly threatening them — I don’t know. I told them they didn’t have anything to worry about. Most people would take care of them.”

The medical team gave Wilson’s wife some medicine to help with her Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Wilson said. She has since passed away.

“They checked on people that needed medical help,” Wilson said. “Older folks that was pretty well stranded, they helped them with medications. They was very much a help to the community while they were here.”

Dante Capane, logistics operations chief for the Keystone Dynamic Solutions team, said the medics treated one of their volunteers for a cut on his eye. The FEMA contract worker said they treated another volunteer who got his finger stuck in a log splitter.

The medics also treated two boys involved in an ATV accident, the worker said. A helicopter evacuated one of the boys, the worker said, adding that the other boy sustained injuries that warranted evacuation but his mother refused to let medics treat him.

“We did a lot of family medicine, refills on heart medication, diuretics, people stopping by with rashes and bee stings,” the FEMA contract worker said.

Some members of the medical team questioned whether pulling out was the right decision. But Zimmerman, who left before the evacuation, said they made the right call.

“I agree wholeheartedly with the decision,” he said. “They felt there was a threat of violence. If I walk into a residence and there’s a threat against me, I have all the rights to evacuate that residence, and wait for law enforcement.”

The FEMA contract worker told Raw Story they believe the state Office of Emergency Medical Services chose not to publicly disclose the evacuation out of a desire to avoid controversy.

“I think the amount of negative coverage coming out of the area was already impinging on the government’s attempt to help the community,” they said.

“People were already scared. They had been spun up about the negative aspects. I think OEMS was hesitant to pour more fuel on the fire, especially when [the threat] couldn’t be proven one way or the other.”

'Fits a profile': Suspect's Christian ties spur fears of more assassinations

Since the fatal shooting of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband in an act described by a federal prosecutor as a “political assassination,” scrutiny has turned to suspect Vance Boelter’s ties to independent charismatic Christianity, in particular a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

Boelter is alleged to have posed as a police officer as he gunned down Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in the early hours of June 14. In a separate shooting, he wounded state Sen. John A. Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Investigators say Boelter visited two other lawmakers and had a list of 70 targets, including Democrats, civic leaders and abortion providers.

Boelter was described in a court filing supporting federal charges as embarking "on a planned campaign of stalking and violence, designed to inflict fear, injure, and kill members of the Minnesota state legislature and their families."

Researchers who study the Christian right have homed in on Boelter’s attendance at a Bible college in Dallas in the late 1980s and missionary work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he delivered sermons critical of abortion and LGBTQ+ people.

Christ For the Nations Institute (CFNI) confirmed that Boelter attended the college from 1988 to 1990, graduating with a “diploma in practical theology in leadership and pastoral.”

Christ For the Nations Institute has been a “merging space” for trends in independent charismatic Christianity, Matthew D. Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic Christian Jewish Studies, told the “Straight White American Jesus” podcast.

Those trends include dominionism — the idea of Christians taking control over the world — and NAR, which emerged in the mid-1990s.

Frederick Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, described NAR to Raw Story as a movement whose adherents believe God speaks directly to modern-day apostles and prophets, and which seeks to “restore their vision of what they think 1st-century Christianity was.”

Both Taylor and Clarkson note that Apostle Dutch Sheets, one of the major proponents of New Apostolic Reformation, attended CFNI in the 1970s and taught at the college in the following decade, potentially overlapping with Boelter.

Sheets reportedly met Trump officials at the White House one week before the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Staff at Dutch Sheets Ministries declined Raw Story’s request for an interview.

In the early 2010s, Sheets was executive director at CFNI, where a sign in the lobby displays a quote attributed to founder Gordon Lindsay: “Every Christian ought to pray at least one violent prayer a day.”

Following the Minnesota shootings, the institute said its leadership was “absolutely aghast and horrified that a CFNI alumnus is the suspect,” and that it “unequivocally rejects, denounces, and condemns any and all forms of violence and extremism, be it politically, racially, religiously or otherwise motivated.”

The statement rejected any notion the college’s teachings were “a contributing factor” to Boelter’s “evil behavior.”

The statement also claimed Lindsay’s comment about “violent prayer” has been misrepresented.

“By ‘violent prayer’ he meant that a Christian’s prayer life should be intense, fervent, and passionate, not passive and lukewarm,” the statement said, “considering that spiritual forces of darkness are focused on attacking life, identity in God, purpose, peace, love, joy, truth, health, and other good things.”

‘Five soccer balls’

Researchers who track the Christian right have taken note of a sermon Boelter preached in Congo in 2023.

“They don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches,” Boelter said, in comments first reported by Wired. “They don’t have the gifts flowing. God gives the body gifts. To keep balance. Because when the body starts moving in the wrong direction, when they’re one, and accepting the gifts, God will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.”

Clarkson told Raw Story Boelter’s rhetoric had a familiar ring.

“Nobody but someone influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation movement would say something like that,” Clarkson said.

But Taylor saw a broader strain of charismatic Christianity in Boelter’s sermonizing, connected to the Latter Rain movement, a precursor to NAR that emerged after World War II.

“Many people today would say those are NAR ideas, but they were Latter Rain ideas before they were NAR ideas,” Taylor said. “I don’t know where he picked up these ideas. He’s very clearly charismatic in his theology and in his preaching as well.”

In a sermon in Congo in 2022, Boelter used an odd metaphor involving soccer balls to suggest he was burdened with regrets.

“Do you understand what God has given us?” Boelter asked. “He’s given us eternity — with Him. And what does he ask? He says, ‘Life didn’t go the way I wanted it for you. But it wasn’t my fault. Vance, you sidetracked. You messed up your life. You took your five soccer balls, and you wrecked ’em.’

“But He says he loves us so much he came and he died to pay for it all. And he says, ‘Vance, do you want to trade your five wrecked soccer balls for all of these? Do you want to live forever with me? Then get on your face, Vance, and repent of your sins.”

Clarkson told Raw Story he thinks both personal troubles and exposure to ideas in the realm of charismatic Christianity could have factored into Boelter’s turn to political violence.

“If he’s in NAR all the way, and his marriage and his finances are falling apart, he may lean into his faith to find purpose,” Clarkson said. “If he thinks his life as he knows it is over, he may be thinking about trying to go out in a meaningful way.”

Boelter reportedly texted his family after the shootings: “Dad went to war last night.”

“He’s been planning these things for a long time; he was armed for it,” Clarkson said. “It was literally war. He did seem to assume he would be killed … When people commit violence out of religious motive, that’s profound.”

‘Priming the pump for violence’

Clarkson said that if it turns out Boelter is an NAR adherent, “this would be the first major example of the violent vision and rhetoric of the New Apostolic Reformation movement manifesting.”

On the other hand, Clarkson said, “if it turns out that he’s not NAR, it’s still the case that there are all these NAR leaders that have been teaching people that they are in an end-times war. They’re priming the pump for violence in their lifetime.”

 Minnesota shooting Officers gather in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, after the shootings of two lawmakers and their spouses. REUTERS/Ellen Schmidt

Taylor suggested a different way of looking at Boelter’s attack.

Political discourse in the U.S. is “at a high boil,” Taylor said. While Boelter might have been influenced by hostility towards abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in right-wing media, Taylor noted that political violence is manifesting against an array of targets, with a firebombing attack against Jewish demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in Colorado this month only one example.

“There’s so much of this bile in the far-right and right-wing and independent media spaces about abortion, and about LGBTQ+ rights,” Taylor said. “And that’s something that Boelter touches on in his sermons as well — about trans people, about Muslims, about immigrants.

“I worry that this is the harbinger of what’s to come. And we could see more attacks like this in the coming time, because he fits a very common profile.”

Teen admits to terrifying swatting crusade: 'That's how u get a bomb squad'

A 19-year-old Ohio man who set up an online group chat and wrote scripts for Purgatory, a nihilistic swatting gang that targeted a casino, airport, trailer park and schools, has pleaded guilty in federal court.

Brayden Grace of Columbus, Ohio, appeared before Judge Julie Rebecca Rubin in Baltimore on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to conspiracy, cyberstalking, threat to damage and destroy by means of fire and other charges.

Grace was responsible for developing swatting scripts for a two-month coordinated campaign that sought to sow fear and tie up law enforcement resources across the U.S. in December 2023 and January 2024, according to prosecutors.

Grace's sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 14.

According to the indictment against Grace and two co-defendants, the swatting incidents, which involved members contacting law enforcement through masked phone numbers to solicit armed responses, included threats to burn down a trailer park in Alabama, shoot a teacher and students at a Delaware high school, and bombing and shooting threats against a casino in Columbus, Ohio and an airport in Albany, N.Y.

Purgatory is described by Marc-André Argentino, a leading scholar of nihilistic violent extremism, as a “subset of 764,” a sprawling global online network committed to extreme acts of sadism.

Argentino commented in an analysis published in February that the investigation “exposes a deeply concerning evolution of cyber-enabled criminal behavior.”

He described Purgatory as “a multifaceted criminal enterprise that seamlessly blends digital tactics — such as swatting, cyberstalking, doxxing, and online grooming — with overt acts of violence and exploitation in the real world.”

The government alleges that Grace boasted in an Instagram chat in December 2023: “My swat scrips are crazy … That’s how u get like a bomb squad and a few swat trucks.”

Three days later, he started a group chat on the social media platform Telegram called “Purgatory GC.”

Court documents describe Grace as an instigator of the coordinated, multi-state swatting campaign. The indictment alleges that he posted identifying information about a former associate in Alabama, along with the address of the Hollywood Casino in Columbus in January 2024. In the same month, Grace allegedly sent a private message to co-defendant Owen Jarboe with a Google map for a Massachusetts high school, writing, “Ayo we got a school to do tmr.”

After Grace posted the address of the casino, the indictment alleges, two unnamed co-conspirators who were minors called the Columbus Police Department threatening to blow up the casino and to “start shooting” and “kill everyone here,” unless authorities delivered $100,000 in cash and a helicopter.

Prosecutors pointed to a tangle of motivations behind the Purgatory members’ coordinated campaign. A statement of facts filed in Grace's case on Wednesday said pro-Purgatory members “engaged in swatting and doxxing to strike out at perceived rivals, gain online notoriety, attempt to make money, and for their own enjoyment.

“They did so to cause armed police responses to locations with the intent to threaten, intimidate, and harass individuals and entities,” prosecutors added.

The larger 764 network has caused increasing alarm for global law enforcement, with the FBI deeming it a “tier one” terrorism threat and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police classifying it as an “ideologically motivated violent extremist” entity.

Court documents indicate the Purgatory members are dealing with significant mental health issues.

One of Grace’s co-defendants, Evan Strauss, pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and child pornography in a separate case.

Strauss was originally set to be sentenced in May, but his lawyer asked for a delay based on the discovery that Strauss has “autism” and was diagnosed “with significantly low IQ.” The lawyer is seeking to have her client examined by a forensic psychologist for testing and analysis that could potentially be used as mitigating evidence.

Grace also has a history of mental health challenges. According to a local news report, he was the subject of a “missing children” report issued by the Columbus Police Department in 2021, when, as a 15-year-old, he hopped a fence from a juvenile detention facility where he was being treated for “mental health issues” and “suicidal thoughts.”

In May 2024, Grace was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted List. A federal magistrate judge in Ohio ordered him into pretrial detention after finding that Grace had evaded law enforcement for several weeks prior to his arrest.

“Defendant has no place to reside if released, and has serious unaddressed mental health and substance abuse issues,” Magistrate Judge Kimberly A. Jolson wrote. “As charged, defendant engaged in computer/telephonic crimes that are difficult to monitor. He has been convicted of these types of crimes in the past, and his criminal conduct is escalating.”

Navy reunion hit by fury over antisemite who wanted Trump dead

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has banned Matt Wakulik, a podcaster and self-proclaimed militia leader with a history of violent and often antisemitic statements, from a memorial service commemorating the attack on the USS Liberty this weekend — though survivors appear to be quietly moving forward with plans to feature him as a guest speaker.

Earlier this week, Raw Story reported that Wakulik cited antisemitic conspiracy theories in calling for the execution of President Donald Trump and the torture of FBI director Kash Patel.

The Liberty, a U.S. Navy ship, became the subject of such theories when it was attacked in error by Israeli forces in June 1967, resulting in the death of 34 U.S. service members and the wounding of 173.

The Liberty Veterans Association 58th Anniversary Reunion is scheduled to begin on Friday in Norfolk, Va.

The event has attracted controversy already.

Stew Peters, a popular far-right podcaster, announced he no longer plans to attend after the hotel and VFW post hosting events indicated he was banned.

Peters regularly floats antisemitic conspiracy theories, and has called for a “final solution,” a euphemism for the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Wakulik, a Pittsburgh-area resident, has advocated for a revolution against Jews, describing them in one X post as America’s “greatest enemy.” He has also called for “1776 style action” against “ZOG,” a white supremacist acronym for “Zionist Occupied Government.”

As reported by Raw Story, Wakulik views the Trump administration as beholden to Israel.

“Donald Trump, along with every other president since John F. Kennedy, is a traitor to their country,” Wakulik wrote on X last month, angered by Trump’s failure to declassify files on the Liberty.

“This is just another example of why 95% of all federal government employees should be tried for treason and given the maximum penalty.”

Wakulik also advocated for torturing Patel over his failure to declare Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and sex offender, an agent of Israeli intelligence.

Wakulik has made threatening remarks about other Trump aides. After the 2024 election, he suggested grading Trump appointees “on a scale of how many bullets I put in their heads” — and awarded “five bullets” to Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff.

Wakulik had said he expected to speak at the USS Liberty reunion, on Saturday, alongside Peters at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel.

Though the local VFW post said in no uncertain terms Wakulik would not be welcome, the hotel and the host organization did not answer questions from Raw Story.

The Liberty Veterans Association has previously attempted to tamp down controversy surrounding its guest speakers. Referencing Peters, Executive Director Moe Shafer told local media last month: “If he has any agenda for antisemitism or Jew hating, that will not be allowed, and we have told him this.”

But in an email to Raw Story this week, Shafer declined to say whether or not Wakulik was still set to speak.

“Our reunion is a private event with crew members, family, supporters, and we have done this for years now,” he said. “We do not publish our guest list or speaker list to the public.”

Pressed on Wakulik’s history of antisemitic comments, Shafer said: “What is your agenda with all these questions?”

‘No place in the VFW’

The weekend-long USS Liberty event includes a reception at the Sheraton on Friday and meetings on Saturday. On Sunday, a memorial service will be held at VFW Post 4809, in Norfolk.

VFW Post 4809 has banned Wakulik and Peters from its premises, Post Commander Eric Mallett told Raw Story.

VFW Post 4809 and the Virginia VFW “support the victims and survivors of the attack on the USS Liberty, and all veterans, but white supremacy and antisemitism have no place in the VFW,” Mallett said in a written statement.

“To make this very clear, if Mr. Peters, Matt Wakulik or any other hate group member shows up on VFW property, they will be trespassing.”

In a phone interview, Mallett said he had a list of about eight other individuals banned from the memorial.

Mallett said participants would lay flowers at a monument to the victims of the Liberty attack, and some may make brief remarks. No speakers are scheduled for a luncheon following the service, he said, adding that post commanders will monitor any remarks made.

“If somebody decides to use that platform for any kind of hate or antisemitism, it’s not going to be tolerated at all,” Mallett said. “If they start that hate group stuff, we’re shutting it down.”

False and harmful claims

The Liberty, a spy ship, was attacked in the eastern Mediterranean on June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War.

The Israeli government quickly apologized, insisting the incident was a tragic mistake. U.S. investigations supported that conclusion.

Survivors have questioned the official narrative. Last month, Phil Tourney, the president of the Liberty Veterans Association board of directors, who has appeared on Wakulik’s podcast, claimed during a talk in Alabama the attack was part of a plot by Israel and the U.S. “to get us into World War III.”

Last week, Peters said: “The USS Liberty is a really easy way, a really soft and mild way to introduce people to the Jewish question and the Jewish problem.”

After Peters was banned from the Sheraton and VFW post, Lucas Gage, a neo-Nazi podcaster, announced that he would not attend the event.

The decision by the Liberty Veterans Association to ban Peters resulted in “a lot of drama,” name-calling and “hatred towards everybody,” Wakulik said on his podcast, adding that “there was a lot of bad blood” between Gage and the Liberty Veterans Association.

Wakulik said it was “sad” that Peters canceled his trip to Norfolk, adding that “he could have at least come and done some sort of propaganda piece outside and had his crew with him” to document the spectacle.

Peters said he decided not to come to Norfolk because of the cost of paying for armed security, while claiming that unspecified “people want to kill me,” using “their foot soldiers like these antifa people and these Blacks and these f-----s during Pride month that are all pumped full of Jewish propaganda.”

Since his last podcast, on May 31, Wakulik has been uncharacteristically quiet, making no mention on his X account of his plans for this weekend. He could not be reached for comment.

Contacted by Raw Story, a front office staff member at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel said Wakulik would not be staying at the hotel over the weekend. But the employee could not “confirm or deny” that Wakulik would speak at the USS Liberty event there.

Peters said on his podcast that some hotel employees, including kitchen staff, “were refusing to work because I was coming to town.”

Raw Story could not confirm that claim.

FBI silent as far-right podcaster demands Trump execution and Kash Patel torture

A far-right Pennsylvania activist and podcaster has suggested Donald Trump should be executed and FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino tortured, in both cases for failing to provide evidence in support of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“Donald Trump, along with every other president since John F. Kennedy, is a traitor to their country,” Matthew Wakulik wrote on X last month. “This is just another example of why 95% of all federal government employees should be tried for treason and given the maximum penalty.”

Wakulik was angered by Trump’s failure to declassify government files on the Israeli military’s 1967 attack on a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Liberty, which was determined to have been a mistake.

In May, on The Berm Pit Podcast, which he co-hosts with Scott Siverts, a former U.S. Marine, Wakulik responded to a Fox Business interview in which Patel and Bongino discussed the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex trafficker who died by suicide in August 2019, in a New York jail.

Angered because Patel and Bongino failed to say Epstein was an agent of the Israeli intelligence services, Wakulik advocated “torture to get information, to extract information … whether it’s waterboarding or sleep deprivation.”

Wakulik has also advocated shooting Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House chief of staff.

The FBI and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

‘Show of force’

Since Trump entered politics in 2015, conspiracy theories wielded against political enemies have been a defining trait of his movement.

Wakulik, a Pittsburgh-area resident who regularly disgorges violent antisemitic rhetoric, recalled in the most recent episode of his podcast that in 2020, during Trump’s first term, he attended a rally in Richmond, Va. while armed with an AR-15 rifle that was meant as a “show of force,” to dissuade the then-Democratic controlled state legislature from passing gun control measures.

Days before the protest, Trump tweeted: “Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia. That’s what happens when you vote for Democrats, they take your guns away.”

Wakulik recalled in a video posted to X on May 29 that he and his “militia” showed up at the rally “armed, full body armor, AR-15s and everything” at the rally. He attributed the legislators’ ultimate decision to vote down the gun-control measures to an “armed show of force.”

“There is nothing that works — and the government knows this — other than the threat of violence or violence itself,” Wakulik said.

While steeped in conspiracy theories familiar to the MAGA base, Wakulik appears to have become increasingly disdainful towards Trump.

Much of his ire appears to center on the Epstein case, which Trump aides have used to feed supporters’ appetite for conspiracy theories. For mainstream Trump followers, the case taps into suspicions about an ill-defined global elite, usually linked to Democrats. For hardliners inclined towards white nationalism and antisemitism, links to Israel or a mythical Jewish cabal are also common.

Before he became the FBI director, Patel promoted the idea that the U.S. government was engaged in a cover-up to protect powerful allies.

In December 2023, Patel told conservative media figure Glenn Beck that Epstein’s “black book” of contacts was “under the control of the director of the FBI.”

“And that’s the thing I think President Trump should run on,” Patel said. “On day one, roll out the black book.”

The same day, Patel told conservative influencer Benny Johnson the FBI was protecting Epstein “because of who’s on that list,” adding: “You don’t think [Microsoft founder] Bill Gates is lobbying Congress night and day to prevent the disclosure of that list?”

Patel added: “Put on your big-boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. We have an election coming up, and we need to adjudicate this matter at the polls.”

After Trump’s victory, Patel was nominated as FBI director but did not stop pushing Epstein conspiracy theories. Speaking to Johnson in November 2024, Patel predicted Trump would “come in here and maybe give [the American people] the Epstein list.”

The political establishment was “terrified” at the prospect, Patel claimed.

In February, with Trump in power, Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to placate supporters’ hunger for revelations by inviting conservative influencers to the Department of Justice to receive binders of Epstein case files. However, the stunt was widely ridiculed by Trump supporters who noted that it brought little new information to light.

This month, in a joint interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Patel and Bongino appeared to close the book on the Epstein case. As a lawyer with prosecutorial and defense experience who had visited detention facilities, Patel said, “you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.”

Bongino said: “He killed himself. I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

The next day, Wakulik and Siverts took stock.

Siverts said: “As a government, why can’t we just say, ‘Hey look, this guy, he was Mossad, and what he was doing here was this.’ Will we ever hear that from a government official here?”

Wakulik responded that the solution was for people to “demand by whatever means necessary that the truth comes out.”

“People are mad, but they don’t do anything about it,” he complained. “How would one pressure anyone into getting the truth out of them?”

“Through physical force,” Siverts said.

“Yes,” Wakulik said. “This is why they call [it] torture, right? Torture to get information, to extract information. This is why you apply physical violence or any type of, like, uncomfortability when it comes to torture techniques, whether it’s waterboarding or sleep deprivation.”

Raw Story reached out to the FBI National Press Operations unit in Washington, D.C. to request a comment from Patel. The FBI declined to comment on Patel’s behalf.

In fact, Wakulik soured on the Trump administration long before Patel and Bongino talked to Bartiromo.

Following the 2024 election, Wakulik suggested grading Trump’s appointees “on a scale of how many bullets I put in their heads,” according to video archived by a pseudonymous researcher tracking his statements and provided to Raw Story. Asked by his co-host to rate Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, Wakulik responded: “Five bullets.”

In posts to X, Wakulik has equated supposed Israeli influence over the U.S. government with British colonial rule in North America, while calling for “1776 style action” against “ZOG,” a white supremacist acronym that stands for “Zionist Occupied Government.”

  Matt Wakulik (left) attended an armed pro-Second Amendment rally at the Virginia legislature in Richmond in January 2020.Anthony Crider

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has made antisemitism its central rationale for deporting international students who support Palestine and defunding universities deemed improperly liberal. Such efforts include a Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which the administration pledges will “eradicate antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

The Department of Justice did not respond to an inquiry from Raw Story about whether Wakulik’s statements deserved attention from the task force.

‘Go kinetic’

Wakulik has suggested he might be willing to act on his violent beliefs.

In a May 2 X post, Walkulik suggested “the militia” should go to Rochester, Minn. to hold a rally in support of a white woman widely condemned for calling a child the N-word in a public park. When another X user suggested the time wasn’t ripe for such a display, Wakulik replied: “I admit I am in a different position than most: I have no children and I really don’t have much to lose. In that aspect I’m more eager to go kinetic.”

In late April, the researcher tracking Wakulik’s statements submitted a report to police where Wakulik lives, in Washington County, southwest of Pittsburgh.

“We were previously unaware that Mr. Wakulik resided within our jurisdiction, and the information you have shared will be valuable in allowing us to maintain a vigilant watch,” Sgt. Gary Scherer of the North Strabane Township Police Department wrote in an email reviewed by Raw Story.

“As part of this, we will conduct a threat assessment, consult with our local FBI office, and likely speak to Mr. Wakulik.”

The following day, Wakulik posted a video reporting that his landlord told his wife a police officer visited their house to confirm that he lived there and that the officer “said it was for another agency.”

Wakulik said, “We are being surveilled currently, probably followed by either the FBI or [the Department of Homeland Security] or both.”

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Pittsburgh office told Raw Story the agency was unable to provide additional information.

Sgt. Scherer’s email said it appeared that Wakulik’s statements fell under First Amendment protections, but he would consult with the district attorney’s office to obtain a legal opinion. The Office of the Washington County District Attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Wakulik could not be reached for comment.

In recent weeks, Wakulik and Siverts have discussed their plans to attend a reunion of USS Liberty veterans, scheduled to take place in Norfolk, Va. this weekend. Siverts said Wakulik was scheduled to speak at the event, and that both men had been issued press passes.

Moe Shafer, executive director of the Liberty Veterans Association, told a local news outlet that “any agenda for antisemitism or Jew hating… will not be allowed.”

Emails to the Liberty Veterans Association from Raw Story seeking clarification on Wakulik’s participation went unreturned.

Stew Peters, a podcaster with a history of antisemitic statements, has also said he plans to speak at the event. But last week an event organizer told WTKR News 3 that Marriott Bonvoy, the owner of the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, where the event will take place, banned Peters from the premises.

Siverts expressed concern on the podcast last week that he and Wakulik's statements might put them in legal jeopardy, especially in light of the fatal attack on two Israeli embassy aides in Washington, D.C. on May 21. Siverts said he worried that “the FBI can come back from an incident that’s a violent incident where somebody was harmed or somebody was killed, and they go, ‘Well, he watched this podcast, and we need to hold this podcast accountable, too.”

Wakulik was unrepentant.

“They come and try to get me, I’m going to defend myself from violent criminals trying to commit an act of violence — a violent crime against me,” Wakulik said.

“But they’re police, Matt,” Siverts replied.

“If they break the law and use violent force to break the law against me, I’m going to defend myself from violent criminals,” Wakulik insisted.

Shock move earns Trump accusations of sheltering white supremacism

U.S. officials who specialize in terrorism prevention are bracing for their office to be eliminated or broken up as the State Department readies to root out what Secretary Marco Rubio calls a “radical political ideology” embedded in a “sprawling bureaucracy.”

The plan to eliminate the Office of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), along with offices that further human rights and prevent war crimes, was first reported by the Free Press. Rubio appeared to confirm the reporting, sharing a link and describing “the real exclusive on how we’re making the State Department Great Again.”

“I don’t know what the plans are, and I’m not sure that the department or Secretary Rubio knows,” Ian Moss, a former counterterrorism official, told Raw Story. “But to dilute the concerted efforts by the office and push it out to other parts of the department will have real fundamental impact on our ability to engage in thoughtful preventive action. And it will ultimately make us less safe.”

Moss oversaw CVE during the Biden administration, as deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, and now practices at the law firm Jenner & Block. While the “speed” and “thin justification” for cuts across the federal government belies the notion that there is any coherent plan, Moss said, he believes former colleagues are “anticipating that their office will be closed.”

Part of the Bureau of Counterterrorism, CVE uses tools including counter-messaging, international cooperation and intelligence sharing, and rehabilitation.

The State Department did not directly address a question from Raw Story about plans for CVE, but instead pointed to a proposed organization chart that showed the Counterterrorism Bureau moved to report to the Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security. The move “will make the office stronger and better postured to stay ahead of America’s adversaries,” the department said, in a statement attributed to an unnamed senior official.

Moss said: “If you are successful on your CVE effort at one end of the spectrum, then you don’t have to drop bombs at the other end of the spectrum.”

That was a striking contrast to the philosophy of Sebastian Gorka, the White House counterterrorism advisor who likes to highlight a military strike ordered by President Donald Trump against an ISIS base in a cave complex in northern Somalia as indicative of the administration’s new counterterrorism policy. Gorka’s X biography includes the acronym “WWFY&WWKY,” which stands for “we will find you and we will kill you.”

From 2022 to 2024, Moss had a unique view of how CVE’s work intersected with other areas of counterterrorism because he also oversaw the Office of Terrorist Detentions. He said the offices “worked hand-in-glove” to repatriate hundreds of women and children from Al Hol, a camp in northeast Syria for people displaced by ISIS, to home countries in central Asia. CVE worked “to help returnees receive rehabilitative services and reintegrate into their communities of origin.”

“That would be devastating if that work goes away,” said William Braniff, executive director at the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab at American University. “If there are not programs to de-risk these individuals, and if these individuals don’t have empowering opportunities elsewhere, they will find empowering opportunities with extremist groups again.”

In March, after eight probationary members of his staff were terminated, Braniff resigned as director of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, better known as CP3, at the Department of Homeland Security.

Braniff said he expects that office will be shut down completely. Braniff described CVE and CP3 as “sister offices”, one focused abroad, the other on the homeland.

‘Extremists of all stripes’

Trump officials are signaling diminished interest in combating the threat of white supremacist terror. In 2017, Gorka said white supremacy was not a problem. Since returning to the White House in January, he has remained silent on the matter.

FBI Director Kash Patel previously accused the Biden administration of fabricating the threat of domestic terrorism as a pretext for harassing conservatives. Following his FBI nomination, a spokesperson for the Trump transition told Raw Story Patel would “protect Americans from terrorism,” without addressing his view of white supremacist threats.

Kash Patel FBI Director Kash Patel attends a House Intelligence Committee hearing about worldwide threats. REUTERS/Leah Millis

While more of CVE’s work has focused on Islamist extremism and “misuse of technology by extremists of all stripes,” Moss said the office “has also been the principal driver of addressing racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, including white identity terrorism.”

The National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, released under Joe Biden in 2021, identified white supremacist and anti-government extremism as the most lethal terrorism threats to the United States. Academic research consistently supports that conclusion.

“The reality is, unfortunately, the United States is a propagator of white identity terrorism,” Moss said. “REMVE [racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists] actors and white identity actors abroad draw inspiration and community — both virtually and in person — with folks who are based in the United States … That has implications if the United States is pushing out an extremist ideology.

“It’s akin to how folks characterized Saudi Arabia in the context of Islamist extremism. We are the Saudi Arabia of white identity terrorism.”

In January, the State Department named the Terrorgram Collective as a specially designated global terrorism entity. Court filings by federal prosecutors have tied the two American leaders of Terrorgram to attacks in Brazil, Slovakia and Turkey.

“The CVE bureau has REMVE as part of its portfolio, which will go away,” Braniff said.

The State Department did not respond to a question about how the loss of CVE might affect its ability to combat white supremacist violence.

The Trump administration’s move to dismantle the prevention approach is not just a departure from the Biden administration’s counterterrorism program.

According to Christopher Costa, who was special assistant to President Trump and senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council in 2017, the U.S. government revised its terrorism prevention strategy beyond jihadism to address racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism during the first administration.

The National Strategy for Counterterrorism, released in 2018, prominently highlighted “prevention.” Since the 9/11 attacks, the strategy observed, the U.S. has “built a robust counterterrorism architecture to stop attacks and eliminate terrorists, but we have not developed prevention architectures to thwart terrorist radicalization and recruitment.

“Unless we counter terrorist radicalization and recruitment, we will be fighting a never-ending battle against terrorism in the homeland, overseas, and online,” the document warned. “Our strategy, therefore, will champion and institutionalize prevention and create a global prevention architecture with the help of civil society, private partners, and the technology industry.”

Costa told the journal for the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point that broadening the scope of counterterrorism strategy allowed the State Department to name the Russian Imperial Movement as a specially designated global terrorist entity. The State Department issued the designation, the first against a white supremacist group, in the final year of Trump’s first term.

“Frankly, by virtue of the United States being the leading propagator of white identity terrorism, this country, in my view, has a moral obligation to marshal resources to mitigate that threat,” Moss told Raw Story.

Under Biden, the State Department, the Department of Justice, and Europol organized three Counterterrorism Law Enforcement Forums focusing on the threat of transnational racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, most recently in July 2024 at the Hague.

In remarks at that conference, Moss highlighted a racially motivated stabbing in Finland by a member of Nordic Resistance Front, a specially designated global terrorist group. He went on to say that “the forum serves as the only platform solely focused on REMVE that brings together law enforcement officials, criminal justice practitioners, financial regulators, and policymakers from over 40 countries and multilateral entities, as well as non-government experts.”

CVE handled preparation for the conferences, Moss said.

National interest first

The report about State Department reorganization that received Rubio’s approval — based on unspecified “internal documents” — appears to reflect both Trump’s lack of interest in white supremacist threats and his preoccupation with Mexican drug cartels. The Free Press reported that “officials in the Trump administration are of the mind that the CVE programs” at the Bureau of Counterterrorism “duplicate others in the agency, including programs at a bureau focused on international narcotics.”

Moss said there was no rational basis for merging the two programs.

“I’m pretty sure that Gen. [Michael] Kurilla at Central Command would not tell you that battling ISIS is the same as battling the Sinaloa Cartel,” he said.

The State Department did not respond to a request for a timeline for the reorganization, but Defense One recently reported that undersecretaries are expected to submit staff-cut plans by May 19, and office eliminations and reduction-in-force notices will go out starting June 2. But that timeline could be pushed back due to litigation brought by federal employees.

Rubio has signaled that the Trump administration is more focused on narrow national interest than multilateral cooperation.

“In its current form, the department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition,” he said last month.

Braniff said the implosion of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security meant Americans can expect less financial assistance to prevention programs in the form of grants to cities, counties and tribal governments, therefore reducing free training on behavioral threat assessment and management teams designed to divert perpetrators of school shootings and other mass casualty attacks.

Based on his familiarity with the State Department, Braniff said the demise of CVE was likely to produce dismal outcomes.

“Foreign fighter recidivism is more likely overseas, including among international terrorist organizations that seek to attack the United States at home and abroad,” he said.

“There’ll be fewer development programs overseas that are addressing underlying factors that can lead to international terrorism overseas. Less focus on transnational REMVE, which increases the likelihood of it thriving domestically and abroad.”

Dexter Ingram, the current CVE director, alluded to the shift away from prevention in a video posted to YouTube on Monday. His remarks were geared towards encouraging young people to enter public service, but he acknowledged the political climate.

“One of the things that I love [is] seeing the formers — the ones who almost crossed that line [to committing an attack] — firsthand get involved,” he said. “I’ve seen that happen in Europe, in the UK, in Vienna, in Oslo. There are university centers now that are popping up and networks of universities and mayors getting involved in this, and sharing best practices.

“And I’m afraid that where we are right now is kind of pulling back on some of those issues and priorities and funding, and some of those just conversations are going to make us, as a nation, more vulnerable and make the world more dangerous.”

ALSO READ: 'Sad white boys': Fear as Trump terror adviser shrugs off threat from 'inside the house'

Trump's pick for top DC prosecutor told AR-15-toting sect US institutions must fall: video

Ed Martin, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, once told an AR-15-toting fringe religious group that institutions preventing Trump from overturning the 2020 election would fall like Jericho, according to footage reviewed by Raw Story but now seemingly removed from the internet by the group concerned.

“We’re gonna have Jericho March, Jericho March all around,” Martin said, alluding to the Biblical story of how Joshua led the Israelite army to attack the city of Jericho and slaughter its inhabitants.

“And if these principalities won’t yield to the truth and the Constitution, we know what happened in Jericho.”

Martin was then a Missouri Republican activist best known for leading Eagle Forum, a group formed by the arch-conservative Phyllis Schlafly.

He spoke outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 9, 2020, less than a month before Congress would convene a joint session to certify the electoral votes for the next president.

On Jan. 6 2021, when Congress convened, a mob of supporters who Trump told to “fight like hell” in his cause stormed the Capitol building. The attack failed to overturn Joe Biden’s election win but is now linked to nine deaths. In January, after Trump returned to power, he issued pardons and commutations for about 1,500 people in relation to the attack.

After being named top prosecutor for D.C. in an acting capacity, Martin personally dismissed charges against Jan. 6 defendants still awaiting trial.

Now, though, Martin’s chances of being confirmed in a permanent capacity appear to be foundering, amid concerns about his connections to the Capitol attack and his role in the “Stop the Steal” movement that fueled it.

‘We speak His truth’

Amid a frenzy of reporting on Martin's chances of confirmation, Martin’s speech outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 9 has been little remarked. But it reveals a startling moment.

Martin spoke to Rod of Iron Ministries, a breakaway sect from the Unification Church that worships with AR-15 rifles and is led by Pastor Sean Moon, son of the late Sun Myung Moon, who is revered by followers as the second coming of Christ.

On Jan. 6, Sean Moon would lead followers to the Capitol. Later, in an Instagram post, Moon celebrated rioters who he said “took dominion of the Satanic temple,” while sending “the most powerful people on the planet scurrying away, like rats, in total fear, total panic, in tunnels.”

On Dec. 9, Martin approached the group, which was preparing to rally in support of Trump. Dressed in a tan overcoat, he asked if he could borrow their microphone.

Introducing himself as “one of the founders of Stop the Steal,” Martin sought to encourage Moon and his followers to not get too hung up on whether Trump’s effort to overturn the election got snagged at the Supreme Court, and to keep fighting regardless.

Speaking with religious fervor, Martin entwined a vision of a Christian nation with unstinting loyalty to Trump.

“We are a republic founded on a Constitution and the rule of law,” Martin said. “But the Constitution and the rule of law mean nothing if you do not have the Judeo-Christian values that underlie it.

“Every one of us has turned to repent to the Lord; our nation has too. But we also turn to our fellow man, and say, ‘Do your job.’”

“Do your job! Do your job!” Rod of Iron members chanted.

The “fake news,” Martin warned, would say the Supreme Court’s decision on whether to hear challenges to the election would determine the winner. Not true, claimed Martin: “We all know at the end of today, the winner’s Jesus Christ almighty God.”

Trust the lawyers to fight the legal battles, Martin said, adding that the Rod of Iron members should stay focused on a greater truth.

“We speak His truth,” Martin said, “and then we bring our truth down here. And we have to be — like the old days — evangelizers of the truth, in the country, in this nation, because there’s too much at stake for us to turn away now. So, here’s the thing: Be encouraged. Be strengthened. Be fortified. And pray. But be ready to keep fighting.”

Martin then invited the Rod of Iron members to come back to the Supreme Court in three days for a “Jericho March,” alluding to the grisly fate of that city.

Video of Martin’s speech was filmed by Kyle Yoder, a supporter of Sean Moon, and posted on a YouTube channel named “Kingdom Generation” under the title “The Second King in front of the US Supreme Court,” an apparent reference to Moon.

Raw Story reviewed, transcribed and took screenshots of the video in July 2021. The video now appears to have been taken down.

Ed Martin (right) and Pastor Sean Moon, leader of Rod of Iron Ministries, hold up a "Stop the Steal" sign at the Supreme Court on Dec. 9, 2020.Courtesy Kingdom Generation YouTube channel

On Dec. 12, 2020, a “Jericho March” went ahead. One of the speakers was Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers militia, who called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act or face a “much more desperate, much more bloody war.”

After the Capitol attack, Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. He was released in January after receiving a commutation from Trump.

Martin was present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but was not charged. As an attorney, he represented some Jan. 6 defendants and became a fixture on conservative outlets that sought to recast the rioters as patriots duped by either “antifa” — leftwing groups — or the FBI.

In one 2024 podcast, Martin said he supported pardons even for defendants who were violent on Jan. 6, reasoning that “this whole thing was such a setup that, while I would never condone hitting a cop, the people that were put in a position and charged with that were put in a position.

“It’s not entrapment — it’s much more sophisticated than entrapment. It’s much more like an incitement on behalf of the entire system to get a result, and then to name it [insurrection]. And so I’m for pardoning all the people that were related to January 6, because I think it was such an egregious thing.”

‘No tolerance for anybody who entered the building’

After Trump’s return to power, Martin’s nomination as U.S. attorney for D.C. seemed set to succeed.

But Martin’s comments on Jan. 6 appear to have become a dealbreaker for some Republicans. While U.S. attorney appointments typically move through the Senate to confirmation without controversy, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, hasn’t scheduled a vote on Martin’s nomination.

In a more worrying sign for Martin, at the Capitol on Tuesday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a key swing vote, told ABC News that after meeting with Martin, he could not support him.

“I think anybody who breached the perimeter should have been in prison for some time,” Tillis said, of those who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. “Whether it’s 30 days or three years is debatable, but I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on January 6, and that’s probably where most of the friction was.”

When Trump was impeached for inciting the Capitol attack, Tillis voted to acquit, though he said Trump’s “words and actions were reckless and he shares responsibility for the disgrace that occurred on Jan. 6.”

Since Trump’s return to power, Tillis has expressed opposition to Jan. 6 pardons. But he must walk a political tightrope, towards a reelection bid in North Carolina that is expected to be among the closest contests next year. Angering Trump would put him at risk of a primary defeat.

Trump has spoken to senators. Nonetheless, on Tuesday, majority leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters he thought Tillis’s opposition would leave Martin’s nomination stuck in committee, and thus doomed. ABC said Tillis could still vote to advance Martin’s nomination to the full Senate, just without his support.

Raw Story requested comment from Martin, via the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He did not respond.

ALSO READ: 'Sad white boys': Fear as Trump terror adviser shrugs off threat from 'inside the house'

'Sad white boys': Fear as Trump terror adviser shrugs off threat from 'inside the house'

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was removed this week but a key Trump counterterrorism official remains in place at the White House — and he's planning a change in strategy to focus on jihadists rather than white supremacist groups that one leading expert said remain a significant domestic threat.

"The call is coming from inside the house," said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. "We all understand why the right doesn't want to tackle domestic violent extremism — it's their base."

The Trump official is Sebastian Gorka, an Anglo-Hungarian-American academic who spent seven months in the first Trump White House as a national security strategist before being removed. Closely connected to Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, Gorka's far-right views have proved consistently controversial. His return to the White House generated protests from former Trump advisers, who called him names including “conman” and “clown.”

Regardless, Gorka is promising a new policy focused on “killing jihadis,” thereby downplaying, if not altogether abandoning, a Biden-era emphasis on white supremacist threats.

Now deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism in the National Security Council, Gorka is by his own estimation an expert on “Middle Eastern jihadism, al-Qaida [and] ISIS.” His X biography includes the acronym “WWFY&WWKY,” which stands for “we will find you and we will kill you.”

This week, Gorka wrote for Breitbart News that Trump has “already engineered a complete reversal in American counterterrorism policy.”

Gorka recounted a meeting with Trump and Waltz during the second week of the new administration. Gorka and Waltz laid a map on the Resolute Desk, showing a cave complex in northern Somalia that was being used as a base by ISIS, Gorka said.

“Kill them, and kill them now,” Trump said, according to Gorka. Thirty hours later, he said, the men were in the Situation Room “watching living hell rain down” on the caves.

'Back to the basics'

Speaking last week at Semafor’s World Economy Summit, Gorka said the new counterterrorism plan, expected to be ready in the coming month, will be “utterly, completely” different from the strategy under Joe Biden. Gorka said the new plan will “go back to the basics,” as “the majority of threats we face are jihadi terrorists.”

In his preface to the 2021 National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, Biden highlighted white supremacist attacks: the 2015 massacre of Black worshipers at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that was targeted for supporting immigrants, and the 2019 slaughter of Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso, Tex. by a gunman who echoed the Trump epithet “invaders.”

Though it cited an array of violent ideologies, the national strategy asserted that “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (principally those who promote the superiority of the white race) and militia violent extremists are assessed as presenting the most persistent and lethal threats.”

Like other officials in the Trump administration, Gorka has said little if anything publicly about the threat posed by violent neo-Nazi accelerationists, who seek to bring about the collapse of society through mass shootings and industrial sabotage.

(Screengrab viaCNN)Sebastian Gorka, right, speaks to CNN, in March. Screengrab via CNN

But Gorka has in the past downplayed white supremacy. In 2017, as an adviser in the first Trump White House, he told Breitbart, where he was previously a national security editor, that where terrorism was concerned, white supremacy was not a problem. Three days later in Charlottesville, Va. a man who had rallied with the white supremacist group Vanguard America drove a car into a group of peaceful anti-racist protesters, killing a young woman, Heather Heyer. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the attack “domestic terrorism.”

Gorka could not be reached for comment for this story. Lewis, from George Washington University, worried that a national strategy on terrorism that erases references to racial motivation might discourage FBI agents from seeking authorization to investigate white supremacist plots.

“In the face of overwhelming statistical evidence, there is a complete unwillingness to acknowledge the reality, because it would fly in the face of their narrative,” Lewis told Raw Story. “It’s not going to go away. We can put our heads in the sand and pretend it’s not happening. There’s still going to be mass shootings, even if we don’t acknowledge that they’re motivated by white supremacy, and the FBI just calls them ‘sad white boys.’

“If anything, the complete inability of the administration to even acknowledge the problem will afford these individuals a more permissive environment to recruit, radicalize and carry out attacks.”

'Growing threat'

In his recent article for Breitbart, Gorka charged that the Biden administration “ignored the growing threat of global jihadism.”

Under the Biden administration, the FBI arrested an Afghan national who allegedly planned a mass casualty attack on Election Day in the name of ISIS. In total, Lewis said, 10 ISIS supporters were arrested in the U.S. in 2024.

On New Year's Eve, a man inspired by ISIS used his truck to attack revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 14 people. Before that, Lewis said, the last lethal jihadi attack on U.S. soil occurred in 2019, when a Saudi airman taking courses at Naval Air Station Pensacola murdered three U.S. sailors.

Since then, avowed white supremacists have carried out mass shootings targeting African Americans in Buffalo, N.Y., resulting in 10 deaths, and Jacksonville, Fla., with three deaths.

In terms of disrupted plots, a review by Raw Story found that since 2021, the FBI has disrupted at least three attempts to attack the power grid by white supremacists affiliated with the Terrorgram Collective, a group recently designated by the State Department as a global terrorist entity. In the same period, the FBI disrupted at least six plots by white supremacists to carry out lethal attacks against police officers and LGBTQ+ people.

Gorka has also promised changes in emphasis on resources used to counter terror groups. For Breitbart, he wrote that the centerpiece of Trump’s counterterrorism approach will be “allowing our special operators, the intelligence community, and the bravest warfighters in the world to deal death to those who have the blood of Americans on their hands or who are plotting to murder our citizens.”

ProPublica, however, has reported that the new administration has cut nearly 20 percent of the workforce at a Department of Homeland Security center responsible for “strengthen[ing] the nation’s ability to prevent targeted violence and terrorism nationwide, through funding, training, evidence-based resources and increasing public awareness across every level of government, the private sector, and local communities.”

'Heinous': Trump admin hails charges for leaders of 764 child exploitation terror group

Leaders at Donald Trump’s Department of Justice and FBI are hailing the arrests of two leaders of 764, a cult-like terror group that promotes child sexual abuse, after a concerted effort by federal investigators to dismantle the network that goes back to the previous administration.

A criminal complaint unsealed in the District of Columbia on Wednesday charges Prasan Nepal, 20, of High Point, N.C., and Leonidas Variagiannis, a 21-year-old U.S. citizen living in Greece, with engaging in a child exploitation enterprise.

Nepal, aka “Trippy,” was arrested last week. He made his first appearance in a federal court in Greensboro, N.C., on Tuesday and is in jail awaiting transfer to the District of Columbia. Variagiannis, aka “War,” was arrested in Greece on Tuesday.

The complaint alleges that Nepal and Variagiannis operated an online group called “764 Inferno” that methodically targeted girls with mental health challenges, gained their trust to obtain intimate images, and then used the images to wage escalating campaigns of extortion. The abuse resulted in victims cutting abusers’ names into their bodies, setting themselves on fire, abusing pets, and even suicide, according to the government.

As evidence of Nepal’s centrality to 764, a sprawling, global network marked by extreme sadism, the government alleges that he has been involved since the group’s inception. Nepal emerged as a leader of 764 after its founder, Bradley Cadenhead, was arrested in Texas in August 2021, according to the government. Cadenhead is serving an 80-year sentence for possession with the intent to promote child pornography.

The Department of Justice press release announcing Nepal and Variagiannis’ arrests showcases quotes by FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Edward R. Martin Jr., the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, underscoring the Trump administration’s eagerness to publicize the campaign to take down the network.

Bondi proclaimed that the defendants “are accused of orchestrating one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have ever encountered — a network built on terror, abuse, and the deliberate targeting of children.”

Patel, who has made friendly overtures to the QAnon movement, a conspiracy theory centered on supposed child trafficking, highlighted the government’s allegation that Nepal and Variagiannis “created a guide for the disgusting online content they wanted.”

Martin, who has repeated QAnon slogans, declared that “the number of victims allegedly exploited” by the 764 defendants “and the depths of depravity are staggering.”

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told Raw Story “the idea of saving children” holds “strong message value” for the Trump administration. Lewis noted that the Department of Justice’s interest in the case aligns with Bondi’s much-hyped release of investigative files in the case of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which proved to be a massive letdown for right-wing conspiracy theorists.

In contrast to QAnon, which posits that a “globalist” cabal of elites is trafficking children, the concern over the 764 network has the advantage of being grounded in fact, as evidenced by at least seven convictions obtained by authorities in the U.S. and U.K. since 2022.

“This is a really important set of arrests in the broader world of 764,” Lewis said. “As has been the case going back to the last administration, the rank and file of the FBI continue to show their work and show proof of their efforts to this growing threat of 764.”

Extremism researchers have been raising the alarm about 764 for about two years. Marc-André Argentino, a senior research fellow at the Accelerationist Research Consortium, described 764 in a recent briefing paper as representing “a modern hybrid threat, employing a calculated fusion of psychological manipulation, operational ruthlessness, and sophisticated communication strategies, making it both resilient and profoundly dangerous.”

The criminal complaint outlines a series of repugnant acts towards minor girls by Nepal, Variagiannis and their associates. In total, six minor victims are listed.

The government alleges that Nepal and Variagiannis orchestrated the abuse by exercising control over who was granted membership in the “764 Inferno” chat. “To be recruited to 764, or invited to the 764 Inferno [chat],” the complaint alleges, “defendants Nepal and Variagiannis required prospective members to produce and share content, which often included visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and self-harm.”

Nepal and Variagiannis, along with two co-conspirators — identified in the affidavit only by their nicknames “Fail” and “Slain” — allegedly created a “guide” to formalize instruction on creating “content.” According to the affidavit, the guide instructed recruits on “grooming” victims and recommended “targeting “particularly vulnerable victims, such as individuals with depression or mental illness” — commonly denigrated in extremist online spaces as “e-girls.”

A "guide" created by 764 and No Lives MatterCourtesy U.S. Department of Justice

In addition to child exploitation, members of 764 appear to be venturing into other forms of violence through an alliance with a like-minded nihilistic group called No Lives Matter.

In a briefing paper last November, Argentino flagged “Slain764,” one of the co-authors of the “guide” cited in the recent criminal complaint, while noting that in recent months, he had been accused of carrying out at least two knife attacks in Hässelby, Sweden, which he recorded “and posted … on Telegram to gain more status and promote the Swedish branch of No Lives Matter.”

Sveriges Television, the Swedish national broadcaster, reported on Wednesday that another 764 member named “Chai” was detained on suspicion of multiple crimes, including two alleged offenses linked to stabbings committed by "Slain."

Argentino also wrote about a member of the “764 Inferno” chat nicknamed “Neo” in a briefing paper based on leaked chat archives. The chats revealed that Nepal, posting as “Trippy,” wrote, “Tell him I’m gonna be giving 764 to y’all for good before I go again,” while specifying that he planned to hand off leadership to “Neo” and another member named “Skin.”

“Neo” was arrested in late February after sending an email threatening to carry out mass casualty attacks at four schools in the Valencia region of Spain. News reports about the arrest did not identify him by either his nickname or his real name. But a 764 chat reviewed by Raw Story shows members linking to a local news story about the arrest and responding with references to “Neo.”

One member said that “neo” was still in the voice chat “while he is feded,” meaning arrested.

“Did anyone catch his house being swatted?” asked another member.

'Clearly dangerous' Army reservist remains ready to deploy despite white nationalism probe

A former North Carolina National Guard member remains in reserve status — part of a pool of soldiers on standby for deployment — more than 18 months after the Army initiated an investigation into his extremist activities, Raw Story has learned.

The Army Human Resources Command opened an investigation on Christopher Woodall in September 2023 after Raw Story confirmed that while serving in the National Guard, he organized a “white nationalist” paramilitary group that held at least one weekend training in rural North Carolina. The report also revealed that Woodall used a Telegram channel to recruit for the group while claiming his experience included “running a state for the KKK”, or Ku Klux Klan, and demonstrating with the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group.

After leaving the National Guard in April 2023, Woodall went into the Individual Ready Reserve with a four-year service obligation through 2027. The reserve may be mobilized during natural disasters or in times of national crisis, as was the case during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Army completed its investigation of Woodall, now 36, in late 2024, Maj. Heba Bullock, a spokesperson for the Human Resources Command, told Raw Story. Woodall remains in reserve status, but Bullock indicated that could change once the Army notifies him of the outcome of its probe.

The Army is unable to disclose that outcome without Woodall’s consent, Bullock said. Once that is obtained, likely in about a month, she would be able to reveal if he remains on reserve.

Bullock indicated it was doubtful Woodall would be deployed in the meantime.

“If they got in trouble, they’d be flagged, pending the outcome of the investigation,” she said. “The next steps would be to notify them if they’re going to be processed for separation. Those that are marked for any type of flagged status won’t be sent to serve in any capacity.”

Woodall could not be reached for comment for this story.

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told Raw Story the Army’s process did not need to be so slow.

“I don’t understand for the life of me why this hasn’t been concluded, and he hasn’t been tossed out,” Beirich said. “The evidence is so clear. What is taking so long to settle this? He’s clearly dangerous. He shouldn’t be affiliated with the military in any way whatsoever.”

Guidance issued by the Department of Defense “expressly prohibits military personnel from actively advocating supremacist, extremist, or criminal gang doctrine, ideology, or causes or actively participating in such organizations.”

When Woodall was recruiting for his whites-only paramilitary group, he was also serving in the North Carolina National Guard, which can be called upon to respond to natural disasters and quell riots. His service overlapped with employment as a detention officer at the Greensboro Jail, from September 2020 to February 2022. Telegram chats reviewed by Raw Story showed that while Woodall was working at the jail, he was also organizing a chapter of a far-right group, the American Guard, that was closely aligned with the Proud Boys neo-fascist gang.

Woodall told Raw Story he was suspended from the detention officer job by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office after getting into a fistfight resulting from a road rage incident. He was charged with misdemeanor simple affray, but local prosecutors dropped the charge.

Woodall said he left the sheriff’s office voluntarily because he didn’t appreciate how he was “treated by leadership” and found the job stressful.

In the private chat Woodall used to organize the paramilitary group, he made no secret that it was meant for white people.

“As stated before, I run a white nationalist training group here in Central Carolina,” he wrote in March 2023. “We train in firearms, combat tactics, gear setup, medical care, homesteading and general orientation of your favorite flavor of SHTF.”

Contacted by Raw Story, Woodall said “SHTF” — an acronym for “s--- hits the fan” was “a generalization” for preparing “for a societal collapse.”

In a post to his TikTok channel, Woodall used the phrase “RaHoWa.” A popular slogan in the white power movement dating back to the 1980s, the phrase is short for “racial holy war.”

Woodall told Raw Story he meant the phrase as “satire,” and did not espouse violence unless it was in self-defense. Nor, he said, did he espouse “overthrowing any government” or “a white takeover of any country.”

He said, “I don’t see it as an issue to have a white-friendly group of people that get together and teach each other.”

In April 2023, Woodall planned a second weekend training, posting an agenda that included a course on “firearms fundamentals/live fire,” one on “team movement” and close-quarters battle tactics (CQB), and another on patrols and assessing enemy capability.

Woodall wrote on Telegram: “I have 8 years experience in the Army (combat arms), and law enforcement. A further 2 years of private out-of-pocket training with various groups and instructors in CQB, contractor courses, and defense scenarios.”

Six days before the training, Woodall canceled it, citing lack of interest. Around that time, he separated from the North Carolina National Guard, on completion of a four-year contract.

The same year, while serving in the Individual Ready Reserve, Woodall posted videos on TikTok expressing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accepted a compliment from a pro-Russia account regarding his strength as a weight-lifter.

Despite U.S. government support for Ukraine, Woodall told Raw Story he believed his pro-Russia views were protected under the First Amendment and shouldn’t preclude him from serving in the U.S. armed forces.

Following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, by supporters of Donald Trump seeking to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a military stand-down to address extremism in the ranks. Austin established a working group with an ambitious set of goals, including improving screening to divert extremists from the recruiting process and standing up an investigative unit to weed extremists from the ranks. Two years later, a USA Today investigation found the unit had made almost no progress.

Later, a study commissioned by the Defense Department downplayed the existence of extremism in the military. According to an Associated Press report, it relied on outdated numbers.

“Under the Biden administration, which wasn’t super transparent about their efforts, at least they cared,” Beirich said. “You have to infer that this is no longer a priority.”

The investigation into Woodall, which stretched from September 2023 to late 2024, was completed before Biden left office. Efforts to root out military extremism are expected to halt under Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary in the second Trump administration.

In his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Hegseth shared his disdain.

“Things like focusing on extremism have created a climate inside our ranks that feels political when it hasn’t ever been political,” he said. “Those are the types of things that are going to change.”

'Retribution or bust’: 'Secretary of Retribution' joins J6 leaders to demand mass arrests

Ivan Raiklin, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who calls himself the “secretary of retribution,” has circulated a so-called “Deep State target list” of President Donald Trump’s political enemies for more than a year now.

Although his promise of spectacular “live-streamed” arrests of hundreds of political figures up to and including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on fancifully concocted charges of treason and other purported violations of law has yet to materialize, Raiklin was able to enlist new allies after Trump vacated the convictions of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.

Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes, respectively the former leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, joined Raiklin on an X space on Sunday night to call for retaliatory arrests against those they hold responsible for the Jan. 6 prosecutions.

ALSO READ: 'Alarming': Small colleges bullied into silence as Trump poses 'existential threat'

The two men were both convicted of seditious conspiracy, with Tarrio serving a 22-year sentence and Rhodes serving an 18-year sentence. Alone among the leadership cadre of the two groups, Tarrio received a full pardon, while Rhodes’s sentence was commuted.

“These are people who have already committed treason,” Raiklin said during the call on Sunday night to discuss retribution against the vast array of government officials who played a role in holding the Jan. 6 insurrectionists accountable. “I’ve seen the evidence. Those that went to January 6th and protested the illegal election knew and saw that these criminals were there.”

Tarrio joined Raiklin in urging Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to start making arrests.

“At what point do we say, ‘Enough'?” Tarrio asked. “At what point does the retaliation, the investigations, the arrests come for these people that wanted to put us in a concrete coffin?”

The FBI declined to comment on this story, and the Department of Justice did not respond to questions submitted through a web form.

But the wide-ranging discussion among Raiklin and his guests on the 99-minute X space revealed deep-seated frustration with Trump administration officials. While Trump promised “retribution” during the campaign, those seeking vindication for their roles in the effort to overturn the 2020 election have found their cause pushed aside during the second administration’s shockwave of new policies, including a global trade war, dismantling the federal government, purging DEI from the military and other institutions, menacing Greenland and the Panama Canal, threatening funding to universities, and disappearing lawful residents.

“I’ve already given up hope on Pam Bondi,” Tarrio said. He added that the recent decision by Patel to promote Steve J. Jensen, former chief of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Operations Section, to the position of assistant director of the Washington Field Office “does not restore confidence for the American people.”

Tarrio and other pardoned Jan. 6 defendants are unhappy about Jensen’s promotion largely because of the congressional testimony of a former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst who told House Republicans that Jensen once described three individuals targeted for Jan. 6 investigations as “godd--- terrorists.”

Raiklin and Tarrio could not be reached for comment for this story.

The 98-minute discussion on Sunday often veered from the retaliatory arrests that Raiklin emphasized as the focal point.

Listeners complained that they could only hear every other word of Rhodes’ remarks, and the former Oath Keepers leader lamented that his X account had been suspended after he made a post calling for the release of another member held in custody on separate gun charges.

Compared with Raiklin and Tarrio’s remarks, Rhodes’ criticism of the Department of Justice and FBI was relatively mild.

“The more you wait, the more they’re going to destroy evidence,” Rhodes said. “So, you gotta go fast.”

Raiklin expressed the view that the Jan. 6 defendants’ best hope of retaliatory arrests lies with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Edward R. Martin Jr., a former “Stop the Steal” campaigner.

Martin’s actions have given those who want to see Trump’s political opponents prosecuted some cause for hope.

In February, Martin sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asking him to clarify comments he made at a March 2024 rally warning that Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “will pay the price” and “won’t know what hit you if you go through with these awful decisions.” In a subsequent letter, Martin told Schumer: “Your cooperation is more important than ever to complete this inquiry before any action is taken. I remind you: no one is above the law.”

In a letter to another Democratic lawmaker in February, Martin requested that Rep. Robert Garcia (R-CA) clarify his comments on CNN that “the American public wants… us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight” against billionaire Elon Musk.

Martin’s probes prompted 10 lawyers, including four former Jan. 6 prosecutors, to file a letter on Monday requesting that District of Columbia Court of Appeals investigate Martin for potential violations of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct.

“Announcing investigations against his political opponents” and other alleged misconduct, the attorneys argued, “are not worthy of the Department of Justice, undermine the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection of law, and violate Mr. Martin’s professional obligations.”

The attorneys also raised questions about Martin’s representation of Jan. 6 defendant William Pope before Martin was appointed to serve as U.S. attorney. The attorneys cited a court filing by Pope claiming that Martin suggested he request the government’s file in his case. The filing, according to the attorneys, raised questions about whether Martin “potentially gave legal advice to a defendant his office was prosecuting at the time.”

As a prosecutor, Martin has intervened directly on Rhodes’ behalf. In January, Martin successfully filed court papers seeking to overturn a federal judge’s order barring Rhodes and other convicted members of the Oath Keepers from visiting Washington, D.C. without permission. Last month, Martin spoke at a Florida political fundraiser that was attended by four of Rhodes’ Oath Keeper co-defendants, Mother Jones reported.

Asked whether Martin is considering investigating those responsible for the Jan. 6 prosecutions and potentially bringing federal charges, spokesperson Daniel Ball told Raw Story the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is “unable to confirm or deny the existence of investigations.”

Tarrio and other guests on Raiklin’s X space provided few details on who they believe should be arrested and what crimes they might have potentially committed. Raiklin, meanwhile, outlined a highly technical and legally specious case for targeting Thomas DiBiase, the general counsel for the U.S. Capitol Police, whom he described as “the key individual that weaponized against J6-ers.”

“If we get to him, he can essentially squeal on everyone else, to include the number-one high-value target, Nancy Pig-losi [sic],” Raiklin said.

The U.S. Capitol Police did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.

On Monday, Raiklin made an X post directed at Bondi, suggesting he wants Trump’s attorney general to rack up an arrest count equivalent to the FBI’s sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 attack.

“Retribution or bust,” he wrote. “The ball is in your hands. Shot clock ends May 31. 6 weeks remain to conduct ~1500 live-streamed swatting raids of all members of the [Deep State target list].”

But compared to a viral video that garnered 10.3 million views last May when Raiklin’s plan for “livestreamed swatting raids” against his “Deep State target list” first gained notoriety, the recent post issuing an ultimatum to Bondi has garnered paltry results: 9,100 views, 134 re-posts and 21 comments as of late Monday.

The comments from MAGA users suggest Raiklin’s influence is waning.

“What happens on June 1st?” one wrote.

“You are not going to do a god d--- thing! Blah blah blah,” another wrote.

Violent J6er who broke into Capitol announces run for Congress in East Texas

An East Texas man who broke into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, and stood on a window ledge holding a crowbar and a bullhorn while exhorting pro-Trump rioters to “get in the building,” wants to go back — this time, as a member of Congress.

Ryan Nichols, a Marine Corps veteran, announced his plan to run for the 1st congressional district seat in Texas, which is currently represented by Republican Nathaniel Moran, on Wednesday.

Nichols was sentenced to 63 months in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers, before receiving a pardon from President Trump. He said during a press conference on Wednesday that he knows “what it feels like to have the full weight of the United States government on top of you.”

Nichols live-streamed himself marching towards the Capitol on a GoPro camera on Jan. 6, according to a filing by federal prosecutors, unleashing an expletive-laden rant against Vice President Mike Pence for his refusal to interfere with the certification of Joe Biden as president.

“I’m telling you if Pence caved, we’re gonna drag mother---ers through the streets," Nichols said. "You f---ing politicians are going to get f------ drug through the streets. Because we’re not going to have our f------ s--- stolen. We’re not going to have our election or our country stolen.”

According to the government, Nichols and his friend Alex Harkrider were outfitted with tactical gear. Nichols carried a crowbar while Harkrider carried a tactical tomahawk axe.

Later, during a pitched battle in front of the Capitol, Nichols hit law enforcement officers with two streams of chemical spray, according to the government. As detailed in a Department of Justice press release, Nichols entered the Capitol through a broken window and rummaged around a conference room.

Standing on a window ledge after emerging from the Capitol, Nichols reportedly held his crowbar in one hand and a bullhorn in the other, while shouting to other rioters: “Get in the building, this is your country, get in the building, we will not be told, ‘No.’” He also reportedly said, “If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon!”

Nichols told reporters during his press conference that he expressed remorse when he stood before the judge to receive his sentence.

“I apologized to the judge that day,” he said. “I apologized to the officers who were there that day. I apologized to the members of Congress and to the people of Washington, D.C. Because ultimately they didn’t ask for all that to happen.”

NOW READ: The suffering of white Trump voters isn't going to change a thing

Copyright © 2025 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | Manage Preferences | Debug Logs
For corrections contact [email protected] , for support contact [email protected] .