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Crime Power The Courts United States

3 Men Plead Guilty In Plot To Attack US Power Grid (nytimes.com) 157

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Three men pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a plot to attack power grids in the United States, which they believed could lead to economic and civil unrest and create the opportunity for white leaders to rise, federal prosecutors said. The men, Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, Ind., and of Katy, Texas; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wis., each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus on Wednesday to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. They will each face up to 15 years in prison when they are sentenced. A date has not been scheduled.

In fall 2019, Mr. Frost and Mr. Cook met in an online chat group, and they began talking about the possibility of attacking a power grid, according to plea agreements. Within weeks, the two men began making efforts to recruit others and began sharing reading material that promoted white supremacy and neo-Nazism. By late 2019, Mr. Sawall, a friend of Mr. Cook's, also joined the efforts, prosecutors said. As part of their plot, each man focused on substations in different regions of the country, and how to attack the power grids with rifles, according to court documents. The three men discussed that by knocking out power across the country for an extended period, civil unrest would spread, a race war could break out and the next Great Depression could be induced, according to court documents.

In February 2020, the three men met in Columbus for more talks about their plot, according to court documents. When they met, Mr. Frost gave Mr. Cook an AR-47, and the two men trained with the rifle at a shooting range, according to court documents. Mr. Frost also gave Mr. Cook and Mr. Sawall suicide necklaces that he had filled with fentanyl, which were to be ingested if they were caught by the police, according to court documents. While they were in Columbus, Mr. Sawall and Mr. Cook bought spray paint and used it to write the phrase "Join the Front" on a swastika flag under a bridge at a park, according to court documents. The men had more plans to spread propaganda while they were in Ohio until they encountered the police during a traffic stop, during which Mr. Sawall ingested his suicide necklace but survived, according to a plea agreement. The F.B.I. searched the homes of the three men in August 2020. Agents found multiple firearms, chemicals that could have been used to create an explosive device, and Nazi-related books and videos, according to court documents.
Samuel Shamansky, a lawyer for Mr. Frost, said on Wednesday that Mr. Frost had "accepted complete responsibility for his reprehensible conduct."

"He has completely disavowed the racist viewpoints previously embraced," Mr. Shamansky said. "Regrettably, Mr. Frost fell prey to the misinformation espoused on the internet and now recognizes how dangerous the medium can be. Moreover, Mr. Frost has committed himself toward rehabilitation and doing everything within his power to remedy his misdeeds."
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3 Men Plead Guilty In Plot To Attack US Power Grid

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  • Turner Diaries? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by clawsoon ( 748629 ) on Thursday February 24, 2022 @06:55PM (#62300855)
    Let me guess: Were they reenacting something from The Turner Diaries [wikipedia.org]?
  • We'll see how long he disavows his white nationalist beliefs when he's in the pen trying to get protection from the skinheads...

    That's when we'll know for sure just how much he disagrees with his past beliefs.

    My guess is that he just pulls them out and wears them around him like a warm blanket...

    • It's not even that:

      "Regrettably, Mr. Frost fell prey to the misinformation espoused on the internet and now recognizes how dangerous the medium can be. Moreover, Mr. Frost has committed himself toward rehabilitation and doing everything within his power to remedy his misdeeds."

      is the white supremacist's Twinkie Defence. Look at all these bad things the Internet made me do! I'd never have done any of those horrible things by myself! Heil Hitl..uhh, I mean, I'm really sorry.

  • They thought they had to attack to maintain LIGHT POWER
  • "Mr. Frost gave Mr. Cook an AR-47"

    I'm guessing we've got news being reported by gun experts again.

    • by drnb ( 2434720 )

      "Mr. Frost gave Mr. Cook an AR-47"

      I'm guessing we've got news being reported by gun experts again.

      I'm sure its just the nickname for the Armalite 7.62x39, or, you know, maybe, a typo. ;-)

    • I don't know if it is in fact the type gun they had but there is AR style rifle chambered for the same round used by the AK-47, and at least one company that makes such an arrangement calls it an AR-47.
      • Meanwhile, the BFG9000 is still legal in most states.

      • by cstacy ( 534252 )

        I don't know if it is in fact the type gun they had but there is AR style rifle chambered for the same round used by the AK-47, and at least one company that makes such an arrangement calls it an AR-47.

        What company makes this?

        Is this a machine gun?

        • I am not aware of any like this that are true machine guns from the factory. Rather it is a standard semi-automatic AR lower receiver and an upper built for 7.62x39mm. The company that comes to mind is Moriarti Armaments.
    • You probably should have fact-checked it first before pretending to be an expert, since such a weapon exists.

      • Yes there are any number of models referred to that way, however there is *at best* a 50-50 shot that was what they were talking about.
        • One website [lawandcrime.com] gives these extra details:

          The plan was for the men to each target a substation in a different region of the country [...] using AR-47 rifles that Forst [sic] had been building. These ghost rifles would have no serial numbers, and in February 2020 Frost traveled from Indiana to Ohio so he could give Cook one of these rifles [...]

          It sounds like they were at least assembling these themsleves, so it might well have been an AR-15 chambered for AK-47 rounds. A court document [justice.gov] lists some of what was siezed from Frost, including an "Armalite Platform Carbine" and 7.62 X 39mm ammunition, which would seem to back this up:

          A black Armalite Platform Carbine firearm bearing no Serial Number;
          Assorted ammunition, including, but not limited to:
          - Approximately 50 rounds of 9mm Luger ammunition;
          - Approximately 84 rounds of Tulammo brand 7.62 X 39mm ammunition;
          - Approximately 2 black. Duramag 7.62 X 39mm magazines; and
          - Approximately 6 Tulammo brand 7.62 X 39mm shell casings.
          A Smith and Wesson 9 mm pistol, SN: 42490;
          A Rugar Mark IV, 9 mm pistol, SN: S00076647;
          An AR Pistol with no identifiable Serial Number;
          Approximately 13 rounds of assorted ammunition and 2 empty magazines
          Two grenade shells;
          [...]
          A Rugar Vasquer .45 caliber pistol, SN: 55-22638;
          A Smith and Wesson, SW1911, 9 mm pistol, SN: TRH5040;
          A Baikal shotgun with no identifiable Serial Number;
          A Sig Sauer, P938, 9x19 MM pistol, SN: 52E073770;
          [...]

    • It's an AR-15 chambered for 7.62x39. I'm guessing we've got comments being made by gun experts again.

  • by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Thursday February 24, 2022 @08:28PM (#62301115)

    > by knocking out power across the country for an extended period, civil unrest would spread, a race war could break out and the next Great Depression could be induced

    Somehow these geniuses missed the fact that power has been knocked out in many areas of the country over the past half century, yet somehow race wars and great depressions didn't magically spring up everywhere

  • Don't they mean Christians? That's what the Fox tabloid claims, that going after white supremacists is really an attack on Christians.

    Kind of an odd juxtapostion, groups dedicated to suppressing and attacking others not like them, but I guess if the shoe fits . . .

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Don't they mean Christians? That's what the Fox tabloid claims, that going after white supremacists is really an attack on Christians.

      Kind of an odd juxtapostion, groups dedicated to suppressing and attacking others not like them, but I guess if the shoe fits . . .

      I'm an atheist but no.

      "Christian" is too broad a term. We tell the hardcore bible bashers that atheism isn't a religion because it has too many different types of people, from Buddhists to Wiccans to Satanists to the non-religious like me. The only thing we really have in common is that we don't believe in a god or gods. Same, but opposite when we say "Christian".

      Christians are everyone from Anglicans to Roman Catholics to Lutherans to old testament Baptists and everyone in between, some times the onl

  • seemed pretty serious for 3 domestic terrorist, white supremacist what ever the 3 are. These 3, thank good! seemed more like losers out at the gravel pit talking big, shooting cans and pounding beers. Were they really capable of taking down the nations power grid? Well except for Texas and the powers to be there seem to be their own worst enemy.

    But I do get a warm feeling just knowing that all the gravel pits are under FBI surveillance in the search for the real terrorist.
  • by mpechner ( 637217 ) * on Friday February 25, 2022 @11:08AM (#62302753) Homepage

    For those of us not paying NYT for access.
    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr... [justice.gov]

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