Third chance for Invictus

Hi, and welcome to The Informant, a publication covering hate and extremism in America, written and edited by me, Nick R. Martin.

Today, I’m bringing you an intelligence briefing with several key developments a bunch of news headlines looking at the world of hate and extremism. These usually come out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve published one, so I’m bringing you a Friday edition.

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Third chance for Invictus

— TODAY… White nationalist Augustus Sol Invictus will get his third chance at freedom in a South Carolina court after having been in jail for almost three months.

Invictus was arrested in December on suspicion of beating his wife at gunpoint and then kidnapping her and forcing her to travel from their home in South Carolina to Florida. Last month, a judge threw out the kidnapping charge against Invictus but allowed charges of domestic violence and using a gun in the commission of a crime to stand.

The judge has already ruled in two previous bond hearings that Invictus should remain behind bars awaiting trial. In one of those hearings, his wife, Anna Invictus, read a powerful statement detailing years of physical and emotional abuse. It was unclear late Thursday why he was being given a third chance.

WHEN: 9:30 a.m. ET

WHERE: 16th Judicial Circuit Court in York, South Carolina.

Also on my radar…

— CANCELED… The National Socialist Movement, a decades-old neo-Nazi group, announced on Thursday it would be canceling its upcoming national rally to celebrate Hitler’s birthday in Pennsylvania.

The announcement came just hours after The Informant first reported that a man with deep ties to the group had died in a violent confrontation with the FBI in the late stages of a plot to blow up a hospital in Missouri.

The man, Timothy Wilson, 36, was an administrator of the organization’s Telegram channel, and, according to the Anti-Defamation League, had become a patched member of the NSM in November.

The NSM said it would be holding a smaller regional meeting in Tennessee on April 18 instead of its national gathering.

RELATED: “FBI learned of coronavirus-inspired bomb plotter through radicalized US Army soldier” (ABC News)

— ATOMWAFFEN AND COVID-19… The one-time leader of the neo-Nazi terror group Atomwaffen Division is asking a judge to let him out of custody while he awaits trial on federal charges, saying he’s worried about his health amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

John Cameron Denton was arrested last month in Texas and later extradited to Virginia to face charges that he was involved in a worldwide “swatting” conspiracy that targeted journalists, activists, a predominantly black church, and a member of President Trump’s cabinet. His lawyer filed a motion on Wednesday asking that he be allowed to live with his grandfather in Texas or a friend in Baltimore.

Denton’s grandfather, the motion revealed, is Frank Denton, a somewhat prominent figure in Texas. Frank Denton was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry (R) to serve as chairman of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in 2002, a role in which he served for a decade. Perry then appointed Denton to the Texas Medical Board in 2013.

READ the motion (PDF)

— PANDEMIC… “Gleeful neo-Nazis see echoes of the 1930s as America plunges into a coronavirus crisis” (Raw Story)

— ODD ONE… “Fascists Impersonate Climate Group to Say Coronavirus is Good for Earth” (VICE)

— HATE RADIO… “White Supremacist Online Radio Outlets Call For Race War, Espouse Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories, Recruit For Violent Neo-Nazi Groups” (The Middle East Media Research Institute)

— HATE MUSIC… “Neo-Nazis from U.S. and Europe build far-right links at concerts in Germany” (NBC News)

— TERROR DESIGNATIONS… “Better intel could help the US designate white supremacist groups as terrorists” (The Hill)

— NORTHWEST FRONT… “Facebook Removes Network of White Supremacist Accounts” (Bloomberg)

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