MAGA rioter busted for recruiting extremists behind bars

On Friday, Law & Crimereported that federal prosecutors are warning in a sentencing recommendation that Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a convicted Capitol rioter with a history of cosplaying Hitler and extremist neo-Nazi ideology, is trying to organize extremists behind bars.

"'It is well established in the record at this point that Hale-Cusanelli subscribes to White-Supremacist and Nazi-Sympathizer ideologies that drive his enthusiasm for another civil war and formed the basis of this Court’s pretrial determination that Hale-Cusanelli was a danger to the community,' Justice Department attorney Kathryn E. Fifield observed in the memo," said the report.

"'Sources inside the jail also reported that Hale-Cusanelli has used the power of a fundraising organization spearheaded by his adoptive aunt to organize inmates and curry favor,' the sentencing memo states. 'One inmate said the situation was like ‘the movie Mean Girls, but with racist, antisemitic extremists.''"

Hale-Cusanelli was convicted in May on felony obstruction and four misdemeanors — and prosecutors are recommending six and a half years in prison.

"A former Army reservist and a security contractor, Hale-Cusanelli held a 'secret' clearance, and his access to classified information alarmed many after his ideology became apparent," reported Adam Klasfeld. "Court papers showed him with a Hitler mustache and hairdo, aping the dictator’s overwrought expressions in faux-stern selfies with his hand over his heart. It was more than World War II-era cosplay. People who knew Hale-Cusanelli told federal investigators that the former reservist expressed support for killing Jews and 'babies born with any deformities or disabilities,' and said that 'Hitler should have finished the job.'"

According to earlier reports, Hale-Cusanelli bragged to his former Black roommate about beating a police officer with a flagpole while in the crowd attacking the Capitol on January 6. He has also fantasized about a "f**king civil war" and said that if he were made king of the U.S., he would give all Jews "24 hours to leave the country" — including Jewish members of Congress.

At trial, he tried to defend himself by telling jurors that he never intended to obstruct Congress, and didn't actually know the Capitol building was where Congress gathered to do business, adding, "I know this sounds idiotic, but I'm from New Jersey. I feel like an idiot, it sounds idiotic, and it is."

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