Federal prosecutors filed a superseding charge of conspiracy to illegally manufacture firearms — specifically, a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches long — against Duncan earlier this month. The charge overrode an earlier indictment with more extensive charges, including one related to an alleged scheme to sabotage electrical substations as part of an alleged plot to launch a race war.
LinkedIn photo of Jordan Duncan, a Marine Corps veteran whom the government alleges had classified military materials on his hard drive.
Duncan had been the last remaining holdout among five co-defendants, the rest of whom had already reached plea deals with the government.
Liam Montgomery Collins, the alleged ringleader of the neo-Nazi terror cell known as “BSN,” entered a guilty plea of conspiracy to illegally manufacture a firearm last October. Co-defendants Justin Hermanson and Joseph Maurino earlier pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Only one of the co-defendants, a former porn actor named Paul Kryscuk, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility.
The government alleges that Collins wrote on Iron March — an online forum for Nazis that was active from 2011 to 2017 — that he was recruiting for “a modern-day SS,” alluding to the paramilitary organization responsible for security surveillance and state terrorism in Nazi Germany.
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Collins recruited Duncan, who trained as a Russian linguist and specialized in intelligence and communications during his Marine Corps service, to join BSN while the two were stationed at Camp Lejeune, according to Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent John Christopher Little. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is the law enforcement arm for the Navy and Marine Corps.
Collins wrote on Iron March that he was “looking for an intelligence/comm guy for his group,” Little testified during Duncan’s detention hearing.
While Collins completed his military service obligation at Camp Lejeune in late 2020, Duncan joined Kryscuk in Idaho, where the group had held a paramilitary training and hoped to establish a base of operations. While staying with Kryscuk, Duncan worked for a Navy contractor outside of Boise.
When the FBI arrested Duncan in October 2020, they found classified Defense Department materials on his external hard drive, as reported by Raw Story.
A federal magistrate also noted during Duncan’s detention hearing that authorities found a fake ID and a Defense Department passport in Duncan’s possession at the time of his arrest.
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Court filings by the government disclosed that the FBI investigated Duncan for potentially mishandling classified materials, but the probe did not result in additional criminal charges. Prosecutors had agreed to exclude any mention of Duncan’s possession of classified documents were his case to go to trial.
Raw Story is suing the Department of Defense and the Navy for access to records about the classified materials investigation.
Tarlton declined to comment on what sentence Duncan, his client, might face. But a court filing indicates that Collins, who pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy to manufacture firearms charge, faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison.
Collins, Kryscuk and Hermanson are scheduled to be sentenced on July 23. It remains unclear when Maurino is scheduled for sentencing, and his lawyer, Damon Cheston, declined comment when reached by Raw Story.
Last summer, Judge Richard E. Myers II issued an order that tightly controls how Duncan, Collins and their lawyers may share the classified materials — identified by the marking “FOUO,” or “For Official Use Only” — that were found on Duncan’s hard drive at the time of his arrest.
