COURT DOC: Leader of Neo-Nazi Group Pleads Guilty to Hate Crime and Conspiracy Charges for Threatening Journalists and Advocates

DoJ announced that a Washington state man pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and conspiracy charges in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Cameron Shea, 25, a leader of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, pled guilty to federal conspiracy and hate crime charges for threatening journalists and advocates who worked to expose anti-Semitism.

Shea pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit three offenses against the United States: interference with federally-protected activities because of religion; mailing threatening communications; and cyberstalking. He also pleaded guilty to one count of interfering with a federally protected activity because of religion.

Shea and three co-defendants were charged with conspiring via an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and advocates they wanted to threaten in retaliation for the victims work exposing anti-Semitism. The group focused primarily on those who are Jewish or journalists of color. The group created posters, which featured Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, and threatening messages, to deliver or mail to the journalists or advocates the group targeted. Shea messaged the group that he wanted Atomwaffen members in different locations to place posters on their victims homes on the same night to catch journalists off guard and accomplish a ‘show of force.’ The posters were delivered to victims in Tampa, Seattle, and Phoenix. Shea mailed posters to several victims, including a poster sent to an official at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that depicted a Grim Reaper-like figure wearing a skeleton mask holding a Molotov cocktail outside a residence, with the text ‘Our Patience Has Its Limits . . . You have been visited by your local Nazis.’ (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)