Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a U.S. Army reservist and Navy security contractor who was arrested for alleged breach of the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, was a well-known white supremacist, federal prosecutors said Friday. , as first reported by Politico.
Why it’s important: “The white supremacist ideology and Nazi sympathizer of the accused is not only obvious from the evidence, this same ideology drives the defendant’s enthusiasm for another civil war,” prosecutors said.
- Hale-Cusanelli allegedly discussed her hatred of Jews, minorities, and women while working as a security contractor at Earle Naval Arms Station in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Context: A new federal prosecutor’s file on Friday included the results of a Naval Criminal Investigation Service investigation into Hale-Cusanelli.
- The investigation included interviews with 44 Hale-Cusanelli colleagues, 34 of whom agreed that he had “extremist or radical views regarding the Jewish people, minorities, and women.”
What they say: One of Hale-Cusanelli’s colleagues said the defendant had “shaved his facial hair into a” Hitler mustache “” and prosecutors extracted photos of the mustache from Hale-Cusanelli’s phone.
- A Navy non-commissioned officer told investigators who recalled that Hale-Cusanelli said, “Hitler should have finished the job.”
The big picture: The Hale-Cusanelli case has received the attention of the military because of its reservist status and occupation in a military facility and underscores the challenges facing the Department of Defense as it attempts to combat extremist ideologies within the ranks. of the armed forces.
- The Pentagon reported this month that national extremist groups have tried to recruit active and former members of the service into their ranks.
- Several former military and police officers participated in the January 6 Capitol riot, which the FBI classified as domestic terrorism.
- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month ordered command officers and supervisors to finally hold a one-day “stand-down” to discuss extremism in the armed forces.