Neo-Nazi leaders facing charges

They are accused of conspiring to harass journalists and others.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Leaders of a neo-Nazi group have been arrested and charged in a pair of federal investigations with conspiring to harass journalists, churches and a former Cabinet official, among others, with phony bomb threats and other forms of intimidation.

John C. Denton, 26, of Montgomery, Texas, a former leader of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was arrested Wednesday and charged with a series of phony bomb threats made in Virginia and across multiple countries.

In Seattle, prosecutors announced charges against a group of alleged Atomwaffen members for cyberstalking and mailing threatening communications in a campaign against journalists with swastika-laden posters telling them, “You have been visited by your local Nazis.”

Denton faced an initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in Houston.

Prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., say the targets of the bogus bomb threats included a predominantly African American church in Alexandria, an unidentified Cabinet official living in northern Virginia, and Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Court records do not identify the Cabinet official, but public records show that then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was a victim of a swatting incident at her home in Alexandria in January 2019, when the alleged swatting conspiracy was active.

The Seattle case charges four alleged Atomwaffen Division members, including Kaleb J. Cole, for their roles in a plot they dubbed Operation Erste Saule.

Authorities say in court papers that journalists and an employee of the Anti-Defamation League received posters in the mail with warnings such as “Your Actions have Consequences” and “We are Watching.”