Houston News : DOJ charges extremists including 2 from Montgomery County with targeting journalists activists
Two Montgomery County men were arrested by FBI agents at their home early Wednesday and appeared in Houston federal court as part of a nationwide Justice Department action against “racially motivated violent extremists from across the U.S.” who are accused of targeting journalists and activists.
The roommates are facing allegations on opposite ends of the country, a fact that briefly confused U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy K. Johnson, who heard both of their cases.
John Cameron Denton, 26, of Montgomery, faces allegations in Virginia that he tricked emergency dispatchers into sending police to a series of non-existent crises at unwitting third-party addresses — a harassment tactic known as “swatting.” Denton will have a hearing Thursday at 10 a.m. to determine who his lawyer will be in Houston.
Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, is among a group of four people charged with federal violations in Seattle. They are accused of creating posters with Nazi symbols, threatening language and images of weapons to harass and intimidate journalists. Cole waived his right to a detention and probable cause hearing. He will have an identity hearing Friday afternoon.
Denton, former leader of Atomwaffen Division, was arrested Wednesday in Montgomery on charges he repeatedly deceived dispatchers into believing someone was in imminent danger. He is also to appear before Judge Johnson on charges of conspiracy to aid in multiple swatting events in Texas and in the eastern Virginia. He is sought by federal prosecutors in the federal court district in eastern Virginia.
Atomwaffen Division, also known as AWD, “is organized as a series of terror cells that work toward civilizational collapse,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups.
Court documents state that from November 2018 through April 2019, Denton and several others, including John William Kirby Kelley, worked together to execute three “swatting” calls. One was to a cabinet official’s home in Northern Virginia on Jan. 27, 2019, another to a location at Old Dominion University on Nov. 29, 2018 and the third to Alfred Street Baptist Church on Nov. 3, 2018.
Denton is also accused of planning to target an investigative reporter at ProPublica and the New York City office of ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization that has been awarded Pulizer Prizes for its work. Prosecutors believe Denton chose the two targets because he was upset with ProPublica and the journalist for exposing his identity and role in Atomwaffen Division.
According to a news release from the Justice Department, an undercover investigator was used in the case. Denton raved about committing what he considered a top tier crime that could benefit the group, and told the undercover investigator he used a voice changer to make swatting calls, according to the release. He told the official he swatted the offices of ProPublica and the investigative journalist, according to investigators.
The Justice Department said that the Seattle group “conspired via an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate. The group focused primarily on those who are Jewish or journalists of color.” The other three defendants in that case are Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond, Wash.; Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Fla. and Johnny Roman Garza, 20 of Queen Creek, Ariz.
According to the criminal complaint: “Defendants Cole and Shea created the posters, which included Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, and threatening language. The posters were delivered to Atomwaffen members electronically and the coconspirators printed and delivered or mailed the posters to journalists or activists the group was targeting. In the Seattle area, the posters were mailed to a TV journalist who had reported on Atomwaffen and to two individuals associated with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In Tampa, the group targeted a journalist,but delivered the poster to the wrong address. In Phoenix, the poster was delivered to a magazine journalist.”
Shea will make his initial appearance on the complaint at the federal courthouse in Seattle at 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Justice Department. Those arrested in other districts will make their appearances in federal court in those districts and will appear in Seattle on a future date.
Houston Forum
Source : chron.com
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