SANFORD, N.C. — A former U.S. soldier-turned-neo-Nazi, who recently served a federal prison sentence for distributing bomb-making instructions for killing former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, protested outside a children’s story hour led by drag performers last month, Raw Story has confirmed.
Jarrett William Smith, 28, wore a skull mask and a shirt inscribed with the chilling words, “Support your local Einsatz-Kommando” to protest a drag show at a yoga studio in Sanford, N.C.
“Einsatz” refers to a Third Reich-era Nazi mobile death squad that assassinated political enemies, Jews and communists. The shirt also includes the Totenkopf “death’s head” skull that was utilized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel paramilitary squad.
Smith, a resident of South Carolina, traveled to Sanford, N.C., where he met five other men and a child wearing masks and sunglasses. Together, they marched single-file down Main Street and joined a small group that included a local pastor on a public sidewalk behind the Sanford Yoga & Community Center, which was hosting a Halloween-themed drag story hour for about 15 children.
Raw Story identified Smith by matching the vehicle that he used to travel to the rally to a 2012 Honda registered in his name in Horry County, S.C., where he currently lives. Ryan Patrick, one of the men wearing skull masks, confirmed in an interview with Raw Story that Smith was also one of the skull-mask wearers and present beside him.
Smith’s presence at the protest does not appear to violate a law. But it indicates he’s back in the business of intimidation following his release from prison.
In 2019, prosecutors accused Smith of encouraging a federal informant to assassinate O’Rourke — a former congressman who’s run for president, U.S. Senate and Texas governor — with a car bomb.
Court documents also indicate that Smith, who law enforcement arrested at Fort Riley in Kansas in September 2019, encouraged users on an encrypted social media app to commit arson against an anti-fascist podcaster.
ALSO READ: Accused felon Rudy Giuliani praises The Citadel for letting him keep honorary degree
In February 2020, Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. A judge ultimately sentenced Smith to 30 months in prison.
Smith was released from prison in November 2021 after serving slightly more than 14 months, and earlier this year, he successfully petitioned for early termination of supervised release.
“Early termination of Mr. Smith’s supervised release poses no danger to public safety and is in the best interest of justice,” Smith’s federal public defender argued in a court filing. A federal judge in Kansas signed off on the order in July, noting that the government did not oppose the move, effectively cutting Smith’s probation in half — from three years to 18 months.
As part of the special conditions of Smith’s supervised release that U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Crabtree imposed, Smith was ordered to “not participate in any anti-government or tax protesting activities which endorse or encourage violence or associate with individuals who are known members of these groups, or possess any literature advocating or supporting these groups” during his probation.
Crabtree freed Smith from these conditions on July 14, when the same judge granted him early release from probation.
Smith, who lives in the Myrtle Beach area — a two-and-a-half hour drive from Sanford — could not be reached for comment, despite multiple efforts to contact him by phone and email, and through family members and his employer.
ALSO READ: Selling hate, vulgarity and violence: How Trump and MAGA overran a quaint Midwest festival
Rebecca Bongiorno, Smith’s mother, told Raw Story by email that his family would “speak to no one unless they can reverse this lie about him, both in the court and the media.” Asked to elaborate, Bongiorno cited unspecified accusations by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi that she said “were thrown out of court.”
Mattivi declined to comment on Smith’s release from probation.
But Mattivi, who now directs the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, told Raw Story he left the U.S. Justice Department while Smith was serving his prison sentence. Mattivi has an extensive prosecutorial history on matters related to terrorism and explosives, having served as the lead prosecutor against the al Qaeda operative who masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole and led the team of prosecutors that convicted three militia members for plotting to bomb an apartment building where Somali Muslim immigrants lived and worshiped.
According to Smith’s motion, the government was represented by First U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard, who did not oppose Smith’s request for early termination of supervised release. In his order, Crabtree took note that the government did not oppose the request.
“Anyone who is sentenced to probation following conviction has a right to request early release,” Danielle Thomas, a spokesperson for the government, told Raw Story. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas respects the decision of the court in these matters, and we have nothing further to add.”
‘We want you gone’
Smith’s presence Oct. 15 in Sanford, a city of about 30,000 residents, was neither coincidental nor accidental.
And he had help in ensuring the atmosphere around the children’s story hour would be filled with tension.
Jarrett William Smith protests a drag story hour with a bullhorn outside a yoga center in Sanford, N.C. on Oct. 15, 2023.roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms
As observed by a Raw Story reporter, Smith led the group of masked men to a corner of the public sidewalk at the edge of a gravel parking lot behind the yoga studio in Sanford where two drag performers were reading to children.
They fell in behind Thomas Booher, a local pastor. Holding a Bible to his chest, Booher chastised a small group of pro-LGBTQ supporters stationed throughout the parking lot to protect the venue. Among them: yoga studio co-owner Mike Knapp.
In addition to Ryan Patrick, the crew with Smith included Nicholas Garner Fisher, a 32-year-old self-identified “Nazi” skateboarder from Raleigh.
Fisher, like Smith, has a criminal record, with his record including convictions for illegally carrying a concealed gun.
In Telegram chats reviewed by Raw Story, Fisher has expressed hostility toward Black people. Of Black people using a skate park that he frequents, Fisher wrote, “If someone’s in my way, they get snaked by Fuhrer daddy and the skateparks are a no n----er zone.” Less than 10 days before the Sanford protest, he had posted on Telegram that he had been prevented from boarding a flight in Florida for using a racial slur.
In a written statement provided to Raw Story, Fisher did not confirm or deny that he was present at the protest in Sanford.
“Everyone was wearing a mask, and I reckon they were just concerned citizens as I was,” he said. “I can’t tell you who was there because of the masks.”
While Booher was speaking, some members of Smith’s group introduced themselves to Jere Brower, a local man who served about 30 days in the D.C. Jail for violating the curfew instituted by Mayor Muriel Bowser after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Brower attracted notoriety when coverage of his arrest noted his past association with Aryan Nations, a white power group that brought together racist skinheads and Klansmen in the 1980s and ’90s.
The 48-year-old Brower acknowledged to Raw Story in an interview last week that he has previous ties to the white power group Aryan Nations, but said that today he accepts that whiteness is not a precondition of American citizenship.
Brower told Raw Story that he did not know Smith at the time of the Oct. 15 protest in Sanford, but that members of the crew introduced themselves to him using their nicknames.
Brower had warned — in a comment on the yoga center’s Facebook page prior to the drag event — that he would be tracking who went into the building. He would be ready, he said, to call Child Protective Services, even though performing in drag in the presence of children is not illegal in North Carolina.
Brower tagged friends on a thread under a post on the yoga studio’s page announcing the event.
Some of the responders openly suggested violence. One of them replied by posting a drawing of a person dressed in the colors of the transgender flag colors hanging from a noose. Brower himself replied to a comment by one of the drag performers with a meme promoting the idea that trans people are prone to self-harm.
Smith’s crew coordinated their travel to the protest on Telegram, Patrick told Raw Story. Information about the protest came up in an online chat, he said. One member asked if anyone was going, and another responded affirmatively. Knowing Smith’s affinity for skull masks, Patrick said it was his idea that everyone should wear one so that they could “all look the same, more or less.”
During the protest, Brower ominously predicted, “This will be the last time.”
Smith raised a bullhorn. He slowly launched into a staccato harangue that gradually increased in intensity and volume.
“If you sit around wearing sexual-fetish gear to give yourself sexual pleasure, and you require the presence of children in order to attain that sexual pleasure, you are a pedophile!” he shouted, parroting a false accusation that drag show organizers and attendees are pedophiles.
Smith shook his head in disgust, and his foot slowly edged into the gravel parking lot.
One of the LGBTQ supporters approached and warned, “Hey, back up, man. Back up on the sidewalk.”
One of the members of Smith’s crew then stepped between the two men, and called the LGBTQ supporter a “f---ot.”
Smith resumed his tirade, seething with rage and frustration
“You do not represent us!” he yelled. “We do not want you here! We want you gone! Out of our town! Out of our state! And out of our country!”
LGBTQ supporters stand guard during a drag story hour at a yoga center while facing protesters led by Jarrett William Smith (holding bullhorn). Jordan Green/Raw Story
‘Kindness and support’
Inside the yoga center, drag performer Stormie Dae wielded a light saber and wore a headdress, heavy gray shawl, pants and knee-high boots while portraying the Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, the other performer, embodied the Muppet character Cookie Monster, wearing a floor-length, blue velvet dress with googly eyes. The two performers read books such as Gustavo the Shy Ghost, Calvin, and Creepy Carrots. They made candy bracelets with the children in attendance.
As a trans person, Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle told Raw Story that this performance name puts a “gender queer” spin on “the idea of princess.” Peritwinkle, whose real name Raw Story agreed to withhold for safety reasons, generally uses the ze/zim/zir pronouns.
“When I would go to drag shows, I would see Black and brown and queer and trans people being free and being their authentic selves,” Peritwinkle told Raw Story. “I was like, ‘How do I sign up?’ I learned a new way to sew a zipper and hem a skirt. It’s a space where I’m able to be free and be me and explore how I move my body and how I interact with the audience. There’s so much kindness and support. It feels good being onstage and seeing the audience live for the performance.”
Lindsey Knapp, a lawyer who has represented military veterans facing retaliation for reporting sexual assault, opened the Sanford Yoga & Community Center with her husband in 2020.
Located 30 miles from Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) — one of the largest military installations in the world — the yoga studio initially focused on providing trauma-informed services to veterans.
During the pandemic, the Knapps’ son came out as trans. Initially, they started an “LGBTQ kids hangout,” Lindsey said, adding that LGBTQ adults started asking for programming as well. Thus, the yoga center expanded into an LGBTQ resource center, incorporating drag shows as one among many queer-friendly activities, including a monthly game night and “sip and paint” sessions.
“My kiddo, when he came out as trans, I wanted to expose him to a lot of different trans humans so he could know he has options,” Lindsey said. “Not everybody who performs in drag events is trans and not every trans person performs in drag events. There are plenty of cisgender people who do drag. Drag in itself is just an art form. I enjoy it because it’s a lot of fun. It’s letting people be creative and use their attire in an effort to express themselves.”
Drag performers Stormie Dae (foreground) and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle make bracelets with children during a drag story hour. Courtesy Sanford Yoga & Community Center
During the brief altercation between Smith’s crew and the LGBTQ supporters outside, one of the LGBTQ supporters called the Sanford police. Two officers showed up and informed the protesters that, because they didn’t have a permit, they could not use amplified devices and would need to stay on the sidewalk.
The police left. The energy at the protest began to flag. LGBTQ supporters maintained a line and stared down Smith’s crew. About 30 minutes before the conclusion of the drag story session, Smith and his cohort filed out. Most of the drag show protesters joined them in a nearby Dollar Store parking lot where they continued to talk before returning to their cars and driving away without further incident.
A track record of encouraging violence
The federal criminal complaint against Smith alleged that after enlisting in the Army in 2018, he led a group chat on Facebook with other extremists in which he bragged about his expertise in bomb-making.
“Oh yeah, I got knowledge of IEDs for days,” Smith wrote, referring to improvised explosive devices. “We can make cell phone IEDs in the style of the Afghans. I can teach you that.”
Additionally, an FBI confidential source who was communicating with Smith asked him to recommend a political figure in Texas who would be a good candidate for assassination.
“Outside of Beto?” Smith responded. “I don’t know enough people that would be relevant enough to cause a change if they died.”
Meanwhile, according to an affidavit filed by the government, “Smith talked with the [confidential source] about killing members of the far-left group, Antifa, as well as destroying nearby cell tower or [a] local news station.”
In August 2019, the affidavit alleges that Smith told the confidential source “that the headquarters of a major American news network would be a suggested target, utilizing a vehicle bomb.”
ALSO READ: How Sen. Bob Menendez can keep his pension even if he becomes a convicted felon
During Smith’s sentencing in 2020, he sought to undercut the government’s case by hiring a retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives enforcement officer as an expert witness. The retired officer submitted a report that concluded that Smith’s advice was largely “incorrect or without sufficient detail to have anyone assemble a functioning explosive or incendiary device or weapon of mass destruction.”
According to the government, Smith’s advocacy for violence was motivated by an obscure Satanic belief system known as Quayinism.
Based on an interview following his arrest, an FBI agent wrote about Smith: “He gives information out freely to people who may use it for harm, for the glory of Quayinism, and his religion of anti-kosmik Satanism. He wants to cause chaos, as it brings back the realm of his religious beliefs, through the destruction of the universe.
“Smith said the idea of chaos in the world is a disruption and he can be an agent of chaos by enabling people with his knowledge,” the report continues. “Smith said that if the death of people isn’t affecting him, then he doesn’t see an issue.”
Although Smith was ultimately convicted only of distributing bomb-making instructions, the government also charged him with threatening interstate communication. While stationed at Fort Riley, Smith allegedly communicated a plan to burn down the home of a Michigan man identified in court documents only as “D.H.”
Matching the username “Anti-Kosmik 2182,” which was cited in Smith’s charging documents, anti-fascist researchers noted the user’s contributions to an energetic discussion on the encrypted social media app Telegram about how to respond to a podcast by Daniel Harper that discussed Atomwaffen and how the group drew inspiration from a text by an obscure neo-Nazi author.
“Ditch the car somewhere a few blocks away, take back alley trails in the woods, etc., and then come up to the house wearing a mask,” Anti-Kosmik 2182 wrote, according to a report by the Daily Beast. “I’m not saying do anything illegal, but I am saying it would be a real shame if all he has went up in literal flames.”
In another chat, according to screenshots from a neo-Nazi channel infiltrated by anti-fascist researchers, Smith provided instructions for assembling and setting off an improvised chlorine bomb.
“Good for clearing out a room or breaking up a meeting,” he wrote, while posting as Anti-Kosmik 2182.
Arson appears to be a consistent theme in Smith’s online communications, as well as in his music interests.
The 2019 chats show Smith advocating that someone burn down the trailer of a white supremacist Satanist whom Smith faulted for betraying the cause by supporting North Korea.
Arson is also a theme in the story of “Burzum,” the Norwegian black metal music project whose shirt Smith was wearing in Sanford on Oct. 15.
Burzum was a solo project of Norwegian musician Kristian Vikernes, who served a prison sentence from 1994 to 2009 for murder and arson related to a church-burning spree.
Vikernes was convicted for the murder of former bandmate Øysten Aarseth. Vikernes and his erstwhile musical collaborator “burned churches and desecrated cemeteries,” according to a report by Southern Poverty Law Center. In the early 1990s, Vikernes and Aarseth helped establish National Socialist black metal, a musical subgenre that is explicitly racist.
Smith’s arrest in late 2019 came at a time when the FBI carried out a significant crackdown against white supremacists and their alleged terror plots. Smith found himself at the epicenter and served prison time for his crime.
But since Smith’s release from prison in November 2021, the white power movement has rebounded with a proliferation of so-called “active clubs,” and other, more obscure neo-Nazi and fascist groups.
Smith’s documented history of calling for car-bombings and arson is striking in the current climate of intimidation against the LGBTQ community in which neo-Nazis and other far-right actors have threatened to shut down drag shows.
‘Greater risk’
For some observers, Smith’s presence at the drag show story hour indicates he hasn’t reformed himself.
“If Smith has remained involved in white supremacist activity, that would be concerning,” Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for ADL Center on Extremism, told Raw Story. “His sentence was relatively short, which makes him at greater risk to hold on to extreme views and perhaps even reoffend.”
As an example, Hyman cited Brandon Russell, an Atomwaffen leader who served prison time for possession of explosives, and then was arrested again roughly a year after his release for allegedly plotting an attack on the power grid.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, one of the drag performers at the Sanford Yoga & Community Center on Oct. 15, is no stranger to threats from far-right protesters.
Last December, Peritwinkle participated in an ensemble drag performance at a downtown theater in Southern Pines, N.C. Peritwinkle stood alongside lead performer Naomi Dix as Dix addressed a throng of protesters outside the show. Peritwinkle was onstage that night right before a power outage disrupted the show.
The outage was caused by someone shooting out a substation in surrounding Moore County, resulting in a blackout that was celebrated by accelerationist neo-Nazis who embrace chaos and societal collapse as a precondition for establishing white ethno-states.
Peritwinkle’s mind would go back to that show in Southern Pines for several months when applying drag makeup. But over time the preoccupation with fear diminished and the joy of being in the moment while performing onstage returned.
“After the violence at the Moore County show, knowing that drag can be protested and can be met by so much animosity, I like to remind people that this gets me free,” Peritwinkle said. “It has a way of reaching queer, trans folks, young and old folks. For me, it’s so personal.”
