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- Court documents released by Politico offer insight into the white supremacist ties of a Capitol Hill rioter.
- Hale-Cusanelli worked at a naval facility in New Jersey where he held a secret-level security clearance.
- Investigators found that Hale-Cusanelli’s colleagues could recall many incidents of racist behavior.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
A US Army reservist accused of taking part in the Capitol Riot was well known to his colleagues as a “white supremacist,” according to new evidence from federal prosecutors.
Among many other revelations, court documents first released by Politico also reveal that Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was a Holocaust denier who shaved his beard into a “Hitler mustache” and regularly praised the Nazis.
The evidence against Hale-Cusanelli resulted from a thorough investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
NCIS special agents interviewed 44 members of the security forces of the NWS Earle, where Hale-Cusanelli worked and held a secret security clearance, with the aim of keeping him in jail pending trial after his arrest on January 15. .
Of the 44 people interviewed, a majority – 34 – agreed with Hale-Cusanelli’s description as “having extremist or radical views regarding the Jewish people, minorities and women,” according to court documents.
An unnamed naval master said the Capitol rioter said “Hitler should have finished the job.”
A Navy sailor said Hale-Cusanelli once said “babies born with deformities or disabilities should be slaughtered at the front.” He also recalled an incident where he said that if he was a Nazi he would “kill all Jews and eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
A supervisor told investigators she had previously had to discipline Hale-Cusanelli for wearing a “Hitler mustache” at work.
The results of these interviews have been published, as has a rebuttal to a letter of support from Sgt. John Getz. Hale-Cusanelli’s supervisor wrote a letter to the court urging them to release him on bail, adding that he was “appalled at the way he [Hale-Cusanelli] was slandered in the press as a white supremacist. “
Prosecutors pointed out, however, that Getz’s previous statements contradicted that claim. He had previously declared that Hale-Cusanelli was a “Nazi sympathizer” and a “Holocaust denier”.
Lawyer for the Capitol rioter argued his client should not be detained pending trial. He told the court that Hale-Cusanelli was not charged with a crime of violence and was not a Nazi sympathizer, according to court documents.
Prosecutors dismissed the allegations, citing photographic evidence of Hale-Cusanelli sporting a Hitler mustache, numerous racist photos recorded on his phone and a now-deleted YouTube channel in which he expressed hateful opinions.
Hale-Cusanelli is one of many insurgents believed to have been a white supremacist. Groups in and around the Capitol wore badges associated with far-right, racist and extremist groups on January 6, Insider’s Susie Neilson and Morgan McFall-Johnsen reported.
After the siege on Capitol Hill, the FBI had to screen DC National Guard troops to ensure they had no ties to far-right ideologies. This has put the Pentagon under increasing pressure to grapple with white supremacist ties within the U.S. military, Insider’s John Haitlwanger said.
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