Man described as neo-Nazi pleads guilty in synagogue plot
DENVER >> A man described by U. S. prosecutors as a neo- Nazi and white supremacist pleaded guilty on Thursday to a hate crime for plotting to bomb a historic Colorado synagogue last year.
R ichard Holzer, 28, pleaded guilty to attempting to stop people from exercising their religion with an explosive or fire and attempting to destroy a building used in interstate commerce in a plea deal with prosecutors.
While each of the two crimes carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors in return promised not to ask a judge to impose a sentence of more than 20 years when Holzer is sentenced Jan. 21.
Holzer was arrested Nov. 1, 2019 after receiving phony pipe bombs and dynamite from undercover FBI agents he had been meeting with.
One agent posing as a white supremacist had reached out to him online after seeing Holzer’s social media posts promoting white supremacy and violence, according to the facts
agreed to by both sides as part of the plea deal.
As he accepted the fake explosives hours before he planned to use them at Pueblo’s Temple Emanuel synagogue, Holzer, displaying a Nazi armband and carrying a copy of “Mein Kampf” in his backpack, the plea deal said.
Holzer also allegedly thanked the agents for their efforts and called the
planned attack a “move for our race”, the document said.
After his arrest, Holzer told police that he did not plan to hurt anyone by bombing the synagogue in the middle of the night, but acknowledged he would have gone ahead with his plan if the building had been occupied because anyone there would be Jewish, the plea deal document
said.
The Temple Emanuel is the second oldest synagogue in Colorado. It was built in 1900 largely by descendants of immigrants from central and eastern Europe.
In a statement about the deal, Colorado U. S. Attorney Jason Dunn called the law enforcement effort on the case “the most impor