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nytimes.com
F.B.I. Arrests Suspected Members of Neo-Nazi Group Before Virginia Gun Rally
By Adam Goldman
5-6 minutes
Politics|F.B.I. Arrests Suspected Members of Neo-Nazi Group Before Virginia Gun Rally
The three men had obtained guns and discussed traveling to Virginia for protests against new gun control measures, officials said.
A gun rights rally is scheduled for Monday at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Gov. Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency and announced a temporary ban on weapons on the grounds of the Capitol.Credit...Steve Helber/Associated Press
- Jan. 16, 2020Updated 12:43 p.m. ET
The men were taken into custody on Thursday morning as part of a long-running investigation into the group, known as The Base. The men were charged with various federal crimes in Maryland, according to the Justice Department. They were scheduled to appear in federal court before a judge on Thursday afternoon.
One of the men, Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, a main recruiter for the group, entered the United States illegally from Canada, according to the officials. He was arrested along with Brian M. Lemley Jr., 33, and William G. Bilbrough IV, 19. Mr. Mathews was trained as a combat engineer and considered an expert in explosives. He was dismissed from the Canadian Army after his ties to white supremacists surfaced. Mr. Lemley previously served as a cavalry soldier in the United States Army.
The Base has become a growing concern for the F.B.I. as it has worked to recruit more people to its violent cause. The Base is an “accelerationist group that encourages the onset on anarchy,” according to the Counter Extremism Project, a group that tracks far-right extremists. Experts following the group say its founder, an American, appears to be living in Russia.
Patrik MathewsCredit...Royal Canadian Mounted Police, via Associated Press
Former law enforcement officials say The Base, along with another white supremacist group known as Atomwaffen, have become priorities for the F.B.I. Several members of the group have recently been arrested. In November, the F.B.I. arrested a young man in New Jersey, who was suspected of recruiting on behalf of The Base and of advocating violence, including the killing of black people with a machete.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia declared a state of emergency and announced a temporary ban on weapons on the grounds of the State Capitol ahead of the rally. Thousands of protesters are expected to converge in Richmond on Monday to protest proposed restrictions on gun purchases by the Virginia Legislature.
The governor said on Twitter that the authorities had identified credible “threats of violence,” including from out-of-state militia groups and hate groups that planned disruptions. He said the authorities had also found extremist rhetoric online similar to what had been seen in 2017 before the Charlottesville rally, when white nationalists and counterprotesters clashed in a deadly fight over the removal of Confederate monuments.
Protesters were expected to descend on the State Capitol on Monday, which is a federal holiday for Martin Luther King’s Birthday.
At a public event on Wednesday at George Washington University, Thomas E. Brzozowski, a top lawyer in the counterterrorism section of the Justice Department, said he was aware of the concerns surrounding the Richmond rally. That was an indication that the highest levels of the Justice Department were taking the situation in Richmond very seriously.
Mr. Lemley and Mr. Bilbrough were charged with transporting and harboring aliens and along with conspiracy. Prosecutors also charged Mr. Lemley and Mr. Mathews with transporting a firearm and ammunition with the intent of committing a felony. The complaint also charges Mr. Mathews with being an alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
The case shows how difficult it is for the F.B.I. and prosecutors to charge domestic terrorism suspects because First and Second Amendment concerns have limited the scope of what law enforcement can do. The current domestic terrorism statute does not carry any criminal penalties.
Investigators said that Mr. Mathews illegally crossed into the United States from Canada near the Minnesota border on Aug. 19, 2019. The authorities said that Mr. Lemley and Mr. Bilbrough picked up Mr. Mathews in Michigan. The men returned to Maryland later that same month.
Mr. Mathews is also believed to have traveled to Georgia, where he trained with other members of The Base.
According to the authorities, Mr. Lemley and Mr. Mathews rented an apartment in Delaware, where the F.B.I. ultimately arrested them. Prosecutors said the pair made a functioning assault rifle. They also bought more than 1,500 rounds of rifle ammunition, fired the rifle at a Maryland gun range and acquired vests to hold body armor.
washingtonpost.com
FBI arrests 3 alleged members of white-supremacist group ‘the Base’ ahead of Virginia gun rally
Shane Harris
5-6 minutes
The FBI has arrested three alleged members of a white-supremacist group on federal gun and alien-harboring charges, amid growing concerns about safety surrounding planned gun rights protests in Virginia’s capital next week.
The charges announced Thursday grew from an investigation of a collection of online extremists who refer to themselves as “the Base,” which is the English translation of al-Qaeda. According to experts who track hate groups, its members promote racist views and seek to unite different hate groups in preparation for a race war.
Officials said Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, and William Bilbrough IV, 19, both of Maryland, were charged with transporting an alien and conspiring to harbor an alien. Lemley is also charged with transporting a machine gun. Also charged is Patrik Mathews, 27, who has been living in Newark, Del. He is accused of transporting a firearm and ammunition with the intent to commit a felony.
The three are expected to make an initial court appearance this afternoon in Greenbelt, Md.
Federal officials moved on the trio partly out of concerns they might engage in violence at a gun rights rally planned for Monday in Richmond, according to people familiar with the investigation. The Virginia General Assembly’s new Democratic majority is advancing four bills that seek to restrict some people’s access to firearms.
“Lemley, Mathews, and Bilbrough are members of a white supremacist organization named ‘The Base,’ ” the complaint charges. “Within The Base’s encrypted chat rooms, members have discussed, among other things, recruitment, creating a white ethno-state, committing acts of violence against minority communities (including African-Americans and Jewish-Americans), the organization’s military-style training camps, and ways to make improvised explosive devices.”
Lemley previously served as a scout in the U.S. Army, while Mathews was a combat engineer in the Canadian army reserve, according to court papers.
Mathews went missing in Canada in August, and U.S. officials say that after he slipped across the border, Lemley and Bilbrough met up with him in Michigan and brought him to Maryland and Delaware.
The court papers charge that Lemley and Mathews used gun parts “to make a functioning assault rifle.”
On Jan. 2, an FBI agent watched as Lemley took the weapon to a gun range in Maryland “and heard what appeared to be more than one bullet being fired at a time.”
After returning from the gun range, Lemley allegedly told Mathews, “Oops, it looks like I accidentally made a machine gun” and noted that they would be in trouble if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found out about the weapon.
In advance of Monday’s gun rights protests in Richmond, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has declared a state of emergency, temporarily banning weapons from the state Capitol grounds, citing “threats of armed confrontation and assault on our Capitol.”
The governor’s declaration means that from Friday evening until Tuesday night, firearms, sticks, bats, chains and other weapons will be prohibited on Capitol Square and throughout the Capitol complex.
Monday is the state’s traditional citizen lobbying day, and gun rights groups are organizing a large demonstration to oppose the proposed legislation.
The rally has drawn interest from militias and extremist groups across the country, raising security concerns in Richmond.
Northam has asked “nonessential” state employees not come to work Monday, a state holiday during which legislative staffers would normally be on duty since the legislature is in session.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray warned Congress in the fall that American neo-Nazis seem increasingly to be communicating with like-minded violent racists overseas, but he cautioned that those links so far appear more inspirational than organizational.
“We are starting to see racially motivated violent extremists connecting with like-minded individuals online, certainly, and in some instances we have seen people travel overseas to train,” Wray said.
In September, the FBI arrested an Army soldier who had hoped to join a militia in Ukraine, following the example of another former soldier who had done so.
Wray said that U.S. violent extremists still by and large lack organizational structure and direction but that there are now individual terrorism suspects who travel overseas to get training — behavior similar to that of Americans inspired by the Islamic State or other groups.
“We have seen some connection between U.S.-based neo-Nazis and overseas analogues,” Wray said. “Probably a more prevalent phenomenon that we see right now is racially motivated violent extremists who are inspired by what they see overseas.”