Two of the white nationalists arrested after traveling to Idaho in a U-Haul truck have ties to a right-wing former state legislator from Washington.
Mishael and Josiah Buster, two brothers from Spokane, were among 31 members of Patriot Front who traveled from various states to Coeur d’Alene, where police said they intended to provoke a violent clash during a LGBTQ+ pride event -- which also drew an alternative "prayer walk" organized by former state Rep. Matt Shea, reported The Spokesman-Review.
Shea, who was expelled from the House Republican caucus after he was found to have engaged in domestic terrorism during the armed takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016, falsely insisted after the arrests that anti-fascist activists were in the U-Haul on their way to ambush him and his followers.
“This attempted ambush from antifa was thwarted,” Shea in a livestream video posted on Facebook.
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Mishael Buster can be seen making jokes in a December 2021 livestream video from On Fire Ministries, and the 22-year-old and his father Matt Buster read announcements from the stage before Shea delivered a message.
Investigators said Mishael Buster lives in a home owned by his parents in Spokane, while his 24-year-old brother Josiah Buster lives in Texas with 23-year-old Connor Patrick Moran, one of the other men arrested Saturday in Kootenai County.
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