Neo-Nazi leader’s threats against journalists net prison time in Washington, feds say

A Washington neo-Nazi leader will spend up to seven years in prison for his role in a multi-state plot to terrorize reporters and activists exposing antisemitism, federal officials said.

Kaleb Cole, 25, a leader of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, headed a campaign to scare targets with threatening posters, the U.S. Justice Department said in a Jan. 11 news release.

The posters, delivered to homes in January 2020, showed “threatening images, such as a hooded figure preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail at a house,” the release said.

The posters warned recipients, “you have been visited by your local Nazis.” The campaign’s targets are mostly Jewish or journalists of color, prosecutors said.

Some testified they moved from their homes for a time. One bought a firearm and took a safety class, while another began opening her mailbox with a stick for fear of tampering.

“He tried to intimidate journalists and advocates with hate-filled and threatening posters, tried to amplify their fear,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown for the Western District of Washington said in the release. “Instead they faced him in court and their courage has resulted in the federal prison sentence imposed today.”

Brown said Cole also had “promoted violence, stockpiled weapons, and organized ‘hate camps’” in his position as an Atomwaffen Division leader.

Three others in the plot have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced, prosecutors said. The investigation included FBI offices in Tampa, Houston and Phoenix, along with Washington and Seattle police.

This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Neo-Nazi leader’s threats against journalists net prison time in Washington, feds say."