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Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a U.S. Army reservist and Navy security contractor who was arrested for allegedly raping the Capitol in the January 6 riot, was a known white supremacist, said federal prosecutors on Friday, as Politico first reported.
Why is this important: “Not only is the defendant’s Nazi-sympathetic white supremacist ideology evident from the evidence, but this same ideology motivates the defendant’s enthusiasm for another civil war,” prosecutors said.
- Hale-Cusanelli reportedly discussed his hatred of Jews, minorities and women while working as a security contractor at Earle Naval Weapons Base in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
The context: On Friday, a new federal prosecutor’s file included the results of a Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into Hale-Cusanelli.
- The investigation included interviews with 44 of Hale-Cusanelli’s colleagues, 34 of whom agreed to have “extremist or radical views regarding the Jewish people, minorities and women.”
What they say: One of Hale-Cusanelli’s colleagues said the accused had “shaved his facial hair into a ‘Hitler mustache'” and that prosecutors extracted photos of the mustache from Hale-Cusanelli’s phone.
- A petty officer told investigators they remembered Hale-Cusanelli saying, “Hitler should have finished the job.”
The big picture: Hale-Cusanelli’s case has caught the military’s attention because his status as a reservist and his employment in a military installation and underscores the challenges the Defense Ministry faces when trying to combat extremist ideologies in the ranks of the armed forces.
- The Pentagon reported this month that domestic extremist groups have attempted to recruit serving and former military personnel into their ranks.
- Several former military and police participated in the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, which the FBI called domestic terrorism.
- Last month Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered commanders and supervisors to hold a “quit” day to discuss extremism in the military.
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