Race-baiting broadcaster pleads guilty to gun charges
Internet broadcaster Paul Miller, known for racially charged rants, admitted Tuesday to stockpiling ammunition in his home in Fort Lauderdale.
Miller, a New Jersey native with two previous felony convictions, took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to three weapons charges stemming from an FBI raid of his home in March.
Although the raid involved the FBI’s terrorism task force, no one explained in court whether Miller was under investigation for more serious offenses.
Prosecutors have said Miller was preparing for “a coming civil war.” They said he hadn’t done anything yet but was “on the precipice.”
The details of the plea deal were not discussed during the hearing. Miller faces up to 30 years in prison, 10 years for each charge. He will be sentenced Aug. 30.
In online videos, Miller has expressed hatred for Jews and Blacks. He also has made explicit calls for a race war in the United States and described himself as a “radical.”
Among warning signs presented to a judge in March were a series of four encounters in which Miller filmed Black people while making monkey noises or calling them the N-word and threatening to beat them.
Miller was in the process of building a large online audience. At the time of his arrest, his channels on Telegram, a messaging app, had over 40,000 followers.
Many signed onto Miller’s court hearing on Zoom on Tuesday. Miller
appeared from a jail cell, where he was held pending trial due to a history of threatening behavior.
He became distressed when someone he recognized from the internet appeared on screen and other unknown users spoke anti-Semitic comments and anti-Black slurs. He apologized to his defense attorney, Michael B. Cohen.
“I’m sorry Mr. Cohen. I never wanted anything like this,” he said.
His attorney told him it would be OK.
“I just don’t want them to blame me for it,” Miller said.
Court staff intervened multiple times to get control over the outbursts. They threatened to throw out the viewer who left an anti-Semitic message in the Zoom chat box and to charge anyone who tried
to record or stream the hearing online.
U.S. District Judge Raaj Singhal discussed Miller’s emotional and intellectual competency in the case. Singhal said he found Miller to be “very polite, alert and intelligent,” and remarked how Miller spoke calmly and intelligently despite the stressful circumstances and interruptions.
“He’s a smart guy,” Miller’s attorney said. “I have no doubt he knows what’s going on.”
Miller admitted to keeping ammunition and firearms, including an unregistered short-barreled rifle — an easily concealable, heavily regulated gun.
One of the charges stems from 2018, when Miller attended a firearms training course in Florida where he went to a shooting range in Davie and fired a gun. He also applied for a concealed weapons permit that year but was denied because of his felony status, prosecutors said.
The two additional gun charges stem from the FBI search of Miller’s house, where agents say they found over 400 rounds of high-powered rifle ammunition.
Hidden in Miller’s dryer, FBI agents say, they found the unregistered short-barreled rifle. It had been assembled from parts purchased at gun shows, according to court records, and bore neither serial numbers nor a gunsmith’s brand.