"I need you to stop doing these threats against the military, against military vehicles, against cell phone towers. I need you to just stop all of that, OK?" the marshal can be seen telling Meyer in one of the videos.
“Lewis, the only end game if you continue going down the path of making threats against the military, making threats against critical infrastructure — the only end game there is for us to go to the United States attorney, and arrest you," the deputy marshal warns. "I don’t want to do that. I don’t think that’s what you need. You need mental health evaluations.”
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Raw Story reported last week that Veterans on Patrol came to western North Carolina to supposedly provide disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Helene by setting up a staging area in the parking lot of the a grocery store about 35 miles from Asheville. Locals complained about threats and harassment at the site.
For the past month, the group has falsely claimed that Hurricane Helene was caused by a “weather weapon,” and that the U.S. military is attempting to kill U.S. citizens with “directed energy weapons.”
During the exchange with the deputy marshal on Wednesday, Meyer said, "Give me the proper channels to address the weather weapons."
The marshal handed Meyer a business card for the Charlotte FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and suggested he call the phone number on the card to try to address his concerns.
In a string of messages posted on Telegram following his encounter with federal law enforcement, Meyer urged his followers to call the FBI to amplify his complaints about supposed weather weapons and directed energy weapons.
"The FBI's JTTF is too busy assisting DHS fusion centers seeking to uproot VOP from where we are to take our complaint," he wrote.
Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI Charlotte Office, declined to comment.
The Veterans on Patrol Telegram channel posted a message on Oct. 31 with photos what appeared to be a cell tower on a mountaintop. The message said locals “are in Live Exercises where the United States Military is permitted to destroy your homes, bodies and minds,” while suggesting that equipment on the tower “is solely for providing the U.S. military the means to murder Americans.”
“Focus on tearing down their weapons,” the message read. It continues, “All it takes is one weapon tower being toppled with the stated reason spoken boldly.”
Another message posted in the group’s Telegram channel appeared to advocate for sabotaging military vehicles and assets.
“Simple acts of pouring sugar into fuel tanks of military equipment, backup power systems, and personal vehicles of military personnel can wreak havoc on those who murdered all these people out here,” reads the message, which was posted on Oct. 30.
The marshal in the video posted by Meyer referenced the late-October posts.
Meyer replied, "I won't be doing any of that. I've only threatened directed energy weapons. I won't do anything to the military or people or harm people."
The marshal said, "OK, so no more signs on military dozers and things like that? Please?"
Meyer further denied any threats saying on Telegram on Wednesday, "For the umpteenth time, Veterans on Patrol will never harm life, destroy vital communications, or power grid that our neighbors depend on."
Still, when reached by Raw Story on Nov. 1, Meyer doubled down on the threats.
"Jesus used bullwhips and flipped tables,” he told Raw Story. “We’re going to use our bullwhips and topple towers.”
When asked about the post about "pouring sugar into fuel tanks of military equipment," Meyer told Raw Story, "We’re going to destroy your tanks…. You want to get dirty? That’s what we should be doing.”
Meyer’s history of extremism dates back to the Bundy Ranch standoff, when armed militants faced down the FBI and other federal agencies in 2014 during a dispute over rancher Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees. Meyer’s involvement in the Bundy Ranch standoff came to light later, when the Oregonian reported that he and a group of friends got into a brawl with other anti-government extremists during the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which Bundy and a group of armed supporters had occupied.
Meyer founded Veterans on Patrol in Arizona in 2015 and is not a veteran, according to extremism watchdog group Southern Poverty Law Center. Prior to presenting itself as a disaster response group in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Veterans on Patrol has claimed its efforts were directed towards rescuing children from sex trafficking, addressing veteran suicide and dubious claims that the military is maliciously harming civilians. Meyer’s activities have frequently landed him in trouble with law enforcement.
Meyer was arrested twice in 2015 after emergency responders talked him down from a light pole in Surprise, Ariz., in 2015.
In 2018, Meyer was arrested by the police in Tucson, Ariz., for trespassing and an outstanding warrant for an assault charge, after occupying a tower on an industrial property. A press release from the Tucson Police Department claimed that Meyer “found an abandoned homeless encampment” on the property, “and fictitiously declared, without evidence or corroboration, that the area was the site of a sex-trafficking ring.”
The Tucson police said they received complaints from Tucson residents that Meyer and his followers had threatened and intimidated them, and Meyer made “multiple threatening and hostile remarks directed towards various elected and appointed officials” through social media.
The marshal in the video on Wednesday also referenced "outstanding warrants in Idaho that you're hiding from" from two years prior, which Meyer said he didn't know about.
In the summer of 2024, before Hurricane Helene, Veterans on Patrol was active in Spokane, Wash. In Telegram message from July 2, 2024, Veterans on Patrol announced to the police that it “would no longer be safe” for one of its officers “to work his beat.” The channel also posted the home addresses of city council members.
“Apparently, I am perfectly fine helping people rebuild and prepping them. However, what they claimed to be ‘terroristic threats’ against the military must immediately stop,” said a Wednesday morning Veterans on Patrol post on Telegram, also noting that the marshal expressed concerns about Meyer's “mental health” and “well-being.”
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