Right-Wing Extremist Terrorism in the United States

Executive Summary

• Right-wing extremist terror incidents in the U.S. have been increasing since the mid-2000s, but the past six years have seen their sharpest rise yet. There were just seven right-wing terror incidents in the period 2005-2007, but by 2017-2019 there were 27, which increased to 40 in 2020-2022.
• The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center on Extremism (COE) has documented 67 domestic terror incidents by right-wing extremists in the United States from 2017 to 2022.  These include successful terrorist attacks, failed terrorist attacks and foiled terrorist plots.
• White supremacists were responsible for more attacks than any other type of right-wing extremist in the past six years (30 of 67, or 45%), but anti-government extremists, anti-abortion extremists and other types of right-wing extremists have also plotted and carried out attacks.
• Right-wing terror attacks during this period also resulted in more deaths (58) from such attacks than any of the previous six-year periods since the time of the Oklahoma City bombing. All but five of those deaths occurred in white supremacist attacks—primarily mass shootings directed against minority targets.
• Most incidents (72%) involved only a single perpetrator, whether an arsonist targeting an abortion clinic or a white supremacist shooter targeting a synagogue. Single perpetrators were also far more likely to successfully carry out attacks; plots with multiple perpetrators were usually stopped by law enforcement. Most incidents were not committed by organized extremist groups.
• Firearms were the most popular weapon chosen for attacks (27 of 67 incidents, or 40%, not counting two additional incidents where firearms were one of two weapon types). Incendiary devices (featured in 25% of incidents) were also popular, followed by explosive devices (18%).
• Right-wing terrorists considered a wide array of targets. Government targets were most frequently chosen by perpetrators (in 18 of 67, or 27% of incidents), closely followed by targets based on actual or perceived religion (17 of 67, or 25%), which consisted of Muslims and Jews. Abortion-related targets and targets based on race (primarily Black people) were also common, at nine and eight, respectively (13% and 12%).

​Introduction

In recent years, violent and alarming actions by far-right extremists, from seditious plots to interfere with election results to white supremacist mass killing attacks, have thrust the issue of right-wing extremist violence into the headlines on a regular basis. In today’s America, such terrorism is not merely a threat, it’s a fact of life. 

Despite this, many questions remain about right-wing terrorism. How common is it in the United States? Which extremists commit such acts and what shape do they take? To answer these questions, this report examines and analyzes 67 domestic terrorist plots and attacks by American right-wing extremists from the past six years (2017-2022).

This time range was chosen primarily for three reasons:

1. It spans the past two presidential administrations, one fully and the other through the end of its first two years.
2. It highlights the violent effects of the surge of white supremacy that the U.S. experienced with the rise of the alt right in the late 2010s, which brought into the white supremacist movement a new cadre of young, newly radicalized white males. It also illustrates the violent results of the spread of white supremacist accelerationism, a belief system that openly promotes deadly attacks. 
3. It extends the research and analysis of an earlier Center on Extremism study of right-wing domestic terrorism, A Dark and Constant Rage: 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States, which examined trends in far-right domestic terrorism from 1993 through early 2017. The data from that study, updated and modified slightly based on internal review and external feedback, allows the comparison of recent domestic terrorist incidents to historical patterns.

Terrorist incidents are only one type of extremist violence, though obviously one of the most serious in terms of both casualties as well as impact. Right-wing extremists in the United States engage in a wide variety of murders and attempted murders, assaults, hate crimes, shootings and standoffs, vandalism, street violence, threats and incidents of harassment and intimidation that may not rise to the level of terrorism, but which nevertheless are significant and dangerous. But terror incidents show right-wing extremism at its most dangerous.

It is important to acknowledge that right-wing terrorism is not the only such threat facing the United States, though it is currently the most significant. Incidents of left-wing terrorism occasionally occur, though they tend to be smaller in scale and primarily directed against property. There also remains an ongoing threat from Islamist terrorism, both domestic and international, but this threat has lessened considerably from its height in the mid-2010s.  Although arrests related to Islamist extremism still regularly occur, most arrests in recent years have been related to people providing material support to terrorist groups and causes abroad rather than plotting or conducting terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

Defining Domestic Terrorism

The Center on Extremism defines terrorism as a pre-planned act or attempted act of significant violence by one or more non-state actors to further an ideological, social or religious cause, or to harm perceived opponents of such causes. Significant violent acts traditionally associated with terrorism include bombings or use of other weapons of mass destruction, assassinations and targeted killings, shooting sprees, arsons and fire-bombings, kidnappings and hostage situations and, in some cases, armed robberies.

Domestic terrorism consists of acts or attempted acts of terrorism in which the perpetrators are citizens or long-time residents of the United States and are not members or agents of foreign or international terrorist organizations. In all but one of the incidents in this report, the attack also occurred or was intended to take place on U.S. soil.  The sole exception involved an American servicemember who plotted an attack on other American servicemembers overseas.

These definitions exclude acts of spontaneous, unplanned violence — such as an anti-government sovereign citizen becoming angry and shooting a police officer who pulled him or her over for a traffic stop — as well as mere threats, such as someone posting an online threat to burn down a mosque or synagogue.

This incident list compiled by the Center on Extremism is by design a conservative list. However, compilers of any such list must make decisions about including or excluding certain borderline cases and reasonable people may sometimes disagree with such decisions. This report also does not include terrorist incidents that occurred in 2022 but which were only revealed in 2023.

One incident on the list is particularly complicated: the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. Over a thousand arrests have been made so far in connection with this event, including several sets of arrests of people charged with conspiracy or seditious conspiracy. These include cases involving the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and other militia groups. For simplicity’s sake, these serious cases are counted in this analysis as one combined incident rather than as separate incidents.

Many governmental and international bodies have devised their own definitions of terrorism, including the FBI, other federal and state governmental bodies and the United Nations.

Terror Over Time: A Troubling Resurgence

​Terror incidents can vary considerably in number from one year to the next. Over longer spans of time, however, they highlight important broad trends in right-wing extremism. The patterns of 21st-century right-wing terrorism in the U.S. show a significant rise of terrorist incidents after a period of comparatively low activity in the early 2000s.

The history of right-wing extremism over the past 50 years has been fairly cyclical. A period of relatively low activity in the late 1970s ended with a significant resurgence of the far right in the early-to-mid 1980s, enabled in part by the major recession and farm crisis that occurred during these years. White supremacists, anti-government extremists and other far-right actors increased in numbers and activity, including violence and terrorism. By the end of the decade, the surge had passed.

The mid-to-late 1990s witnessed another major spike of right-wing extremism, propelled by a variety of causes, including deadly standoffs between the federal government and fringe groups or individuals at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993, that greatly inflamed the far right. This surge lasted until the end of the decade, after which there was a significant decline in the early 2000s, especially within the anti-government militia movement, one of the most active right-wing extremist movements of the 1990s.

However, a third surge of far-right extremism emerged in the late 2000s, characterized primarily by a revival of the militia movement and its sister anti-government extremist movement, the sovereign citizen movement. Factors spurring this resurgence included the election of Barack Obama following years of a conservative president, another major recession and a mortgage crisis comparable to the farm crisis of the 1980s. The rise of major social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube also played a substantial role in the spread of extremist ideas. The surge that started in 2008 primarily affected anti-government extremists rather than white supremacists, but in 2015 the rise of the alt right gave the white supremacist movement its own surge, bringing the largest influx of new recruits to the white supremacist movement in more than 20 years.

The Far-Right Threat Re-emerges

This one-two punch of a surge of right-wing anti-government extremism starting in 2008 followed by a surge of white supremacy beginning in 2015 helped create a steady rise of right-wing terrorism in the U.S. that has shown little sign of slowing down.

Significantly, the far right-surge of the 2010s did not fade away like the surges of the 1980s and 1990s; the number of terror incidents reflects this fact, consistently increasing from the late 2000s onward, reaching a high of 40 during the period 2020-2022.

Several factors have contributed to the high number of right-wing terror incidents over the course of the past dozen or so years, including:

• The staggered surges of anti-government extremism and white supremacy.
• The rise of new elements within both the anti-government extremist and white supremacist segments of the far right that each embraced violence as a tactic—specifically anti-government boogalooers and accelerationist white supremacists.
• The rise of other new forms of right-wing extremism, such as the incel subculture and the QAnon conspiracy movement,which have also produced significant violent plots and acts.
• Consistent anti-abortion terrorism throughout the period.

The result of these developments is that the United States is currently in the throes of a significant upswing of far-right terrorism even larger than the surge in the mid-1990s that produced the Oklahoma City bombing. Indeed, the country is likely experiencing the highest numbers of right-wing extremist terror incidents since the white supremacist violence of the Civil Rights era. Moreover, the current elevated numbers of terror incidents show no likelihood of significantly decreasing soon.

Deaths Over Time: A Steady Rise

As terror incidents have increased in the long-term, so have terrorism-related deaths.  The singularly high-casualty event of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols distorts patterns in the 1990s but, leaving that event aside, right-wing terror perpetrators killed an average of around four people per year during the period 1993-2001.

Those numbers dropped considerably in the early 2000s (with only five people killed by right-wing terrorists during the period 2002-2007) before starting a steady rise in the late 2000s that reached a peak during the period 2017-19 with 39 deaths before declining in 2020-22 to 19 deaths—still a high number. This significant increase in right-wing terror deaths is not merely a result of the surges of right-wing extremism that occurred during this time frame but also, as we will see, specifically due to the rise of white supremacist shooting sprees as a terrorist tactic.

As right-wing extremism recovered from its low ebb in the early-to-mid 2000s, the number of terrorist incidents associated with it increased, as well as the number of terrorism-related deaths, creating a slow but steady and worrisome increase that has persisted over much of the past 15 years, only receding slightly in the last three years, largely because of fewer mass shooting incidents in 2020-21.

These figures do not reflect the total number of people killed by right-wing extremism during these years, because extremists also commit murders, including ideological murders, in non-terror-related incidents, so the total number of people killed by right-wing extremists is always larger than the subset of those killed specifically in terror incidents; the Center on Extremism releases annual reports on extremist-related killings that provide more detailed information on this subject. However, terrorism is one of the main sources of deadly violence from right-wing extremists.

Right-Wing Terrorism, 2017-2022: Topping the Charts

​The 67 far-right terrorist attacks, attempted attacks and plots and conspiracies from 2017-2022 represent by far the highest number of such incidents in the United States in any equivalent time span in the past 30 years. They mark an increase of nearly a third over the 51 incidents from 2011-2016, which was already high. 

On a year-to-year basis from 2017 to 2022, there was more fluctuation, which is fairly common. From 11 incidents in 2017, numbers dropped significantly to only 6 in 2018 before rising to 10 in 2019 and a high of 17 in 2020. Incidents dropped to 13 in 2021 and to 10 in 2022 — a lower number but still tied for the fifth-highest total from 1993-2022. It should be noted that the date recorded here for several terrorist plots is the date of the arrest, because the clear start of the plot itself was not available in the public record.

When these numbers are broken down by type of right-wing extremist, the variation during the period becomes clearer. The comparatively lower totals in 2018 and 2019 are due primarily to the absence of anti-government extremist terror incidents during those years, which largely reflects the history of the militia movement during the Trump administration.

Since the 1990s, most terror incidents involving anti-government extremists have originated within the militia movement, a movement fueled by conspiracy theories and hostility towards the federal government. However, the evolution of that movement took a peculiar turn thanks to the political rise of Donald Trump. Historically hostile to mainstream candidates from either major party, the militia movement from 2015 onwards enthusiastically supported Donald Trump in his campaign for president, viewing him as an anti-establishment outsider willing to fight the “deep state.” The militia movement also supported conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiments espoused by Trump (see The Militia Movement for details).

Militia adherents were jubilant when Trump won but his victory unexpectedly threw a wrench into the movement itself. The movement drew much of its energy from its antipathy to the federal government, but when Trump became the head of that very institution, the militia movement found much of its energy sapped while Trump was in office. In 2017, for example, two of the three militia-related terror incidents that year, both committed by the same group, focused on targets other than the federal government—a mosque and an abortion clinic.  The next two years saw no militia-related incidents at all. 

It was only in 2020 that the militia movement began to find traction again, through opposition to state-level anti-pandemic measures, hostility to antifa and Black Lives Matter (which militia adherents incorporated into their anti-leftist conspiracy theories) and acceptance of conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election. Militia groups showed up at armed protests around the country throughout 2020, while some militia adherents contemplated more violent acts. The most serious militia terrorist incident of 2020 involved the arrest on state or federal charges of 14 militia adherents (five of whom, however, were subsequently acquitted, though most pleaded guilty or were convicted) in Michigan for a serious plot to kidnap the governor of that state, Gretchen Witmer — notably, a state official rather than federal one.

Despite this renewed violence from the militia movement, the real increase in anti-government terrorism in 2020 came from an entirely new movement — the boogaloo movement. The boogaloo movement is similar to the militia movement in many ways, but there are also distinct differences between them. Originating in online communities in the late 2010s, the boogalooers possessed the same love of firearms and military gear that the militia movement did but evinced an even more fervent hostility towards government, especially towards law enforcement, which the boogalooers viewed as a key enemy. Though the loosely organized boogalooers overlapped with the militia movement, boogaloo adherents, unlike their militia counterparts, had no particular affection for Donald Trump, nor any reason to moderate their hostility towards the federal government while he oversaw it.

Boogaloo adherents were responsible for four of the six anti-government terror incidents of 2020 (and were also involved in the plot to kidnap Governor Witmer). Some of these incidents were shocking, including a May 2020 shooting attack targeting security personnel outside a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, which killed one person and wounded another. One of the perpetrators of that attack subsequently shot and killed a sheriff’s sergeant as law enforcement attempted to arrest him.  In September, two boogalooers in Minnesota — seeking financial assistance for their plans to attack targets that included politicians, the media, buildings and monuments and even a white supremacist group — actually conspired to provide material support to the Islamist terror group Hamas.

The violent appearance of the boogalooers triggered an aggressive federal response; over the next two years the FBI made multiple arrests of boogalooers, often on weapons-related charges.  The negative publicity that resulted from their violence also led to the boogaloo movement being deplatformed from many of the online spaces — most notably Facebook — where it had organized. Together, the deplatforming and the law enforcement response significantly wounded the infant boogaloo movement and arrested its sharp growth. These blows to the boogalooers likely contributed to the movement’s decline after 2020 and thus help explain why anti-government extremist terror incidents declined once again following 2020.

In contrast to the ebbs and flows of anti-government extremist terrorism, white supremacists and anti-abortion extremists were far more consistent in their violence from 2017-2022, with white supremacists contributing between three and seven incidents each year and anti-abortion extremists typically adding one or two per year. 

White supremacists were responsible for the highest number of terror incidents in four of the six years between 2017 and 2022. Overall, 30 (or 45%) of the 67 terror incidents during this period came from white supremacist perpetrators, compared to only 18 (27%) for anti-government extremists. In comparison, of 150 right-wing terror incidents tracked by the COE from 1993 to 2016, white supremacists and anti-government extremists were responsible for virtually the same number of acts (62 and 63, respectively). In other words, for most of the past 30 years, white supremacists and anti-government extremists represented roughly equivalent terror threats, but in recent years, white supremacists have noticeably surpassed anti-government extremists to become the most serious far right terrorist threat in the United States.

When one looks at the number of deaths caused by right-wing terrorist incidents rather than the number of incidents themselves, the danger of white supremacist violence becomes even more apparent. From 2017 to 2022, right-wing terror attacks killed 58 people in the United States (and wounded dozens more). Of the 58 dead, all but five (91%) were killed in white supremacist attacks. 

Moreover, of the 53 people killed by white supremacists, all but three (94%) were killed in white supremacist shooting sprees specifically designed to cause mass casualties. Four incidents alone, each of which shocked the nation, killed 49 people: the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018 (11), the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting targeting people of Mexican descent (23), the 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooting targeting Black people (10) and the shooting attack on the LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs that same year (5). The presence or absence of mass shootings was the main determinant in right-wing terror casualties for all years from 2017 to 2022.

The white supremacist mass shooting attacks in recent years are part of a concerning rise in extremist-related mass killings generally over the past 12 years, a phenomenon COE explored in detail in its recent report, Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2022. The white supremacist attacks are also in large part the result of the rise of a phenomenon known as white supremacist accelerationism. While historically the white supremacist movement has been divided on the use of violence, as well as its application, in recent years a number of white supremacists, primarily from the alt right and neo-Nazi segments of the white supremacist movement, have wholeheartedly embraced violence as a solution. These accelerationists argue that white supremacists will never succeed in changing or reforming modern society into some sort of white supremacist ethnostate. The only real option is to destroy this society and build a new one, as desired, from the ashes of the old one. To this end, any sort of violence that could fracture and weaken society, especially if such violence is directed at perceived enemies, is a good thing. Consequently, accelerationist white supremacists openly promote acts of violence and terrorism. They glorify past white supremacist terrorists, such as the Australian Brenton Tarrant, who committed deadly shooting attacks at mosques in New Zealand in 2018 and urge others to follow in their footsteps — even to the point of creating manuals and videos providing guidance, instructions and encouragement. The El Paso, Buffalo and Colorado Springs attacks were all committed by people seemingly inspired by accelerationism, as was the attempted mass shooting in Poway, California, in 2018.

In addition to longstanding sources of right-wing terrorism in the U.S., such as white supremacy, anti-government extremism and anti-abortion extremism, newer movements and causes have also produced violent acts and plots that have pushed domestic terrorism totals higher in recent years. Most notable among these are the toxic masculinity subculture, particularly its incel segment, and the loose conspiracy movement known as QAnon. 

The term incels refers to so-called “involuntary celibates,” a group of primarily younger males who experience great difficulty in forming meaningful romantic relations with women and who have turned their frustrations into a hateful, misogynistic ideology. Incels have been responsible for several shooting sprees over the past six years. 

QAnon is a broad conspiratorial movement that originated during the Trump administration. It originally centered around the oracular and conspiratorial postings of an anonymous “Q,” who purported to be an intelligence insider, and related conspiracy theories that imagined Donald Trump as a heroic figure fighting a vast, evil pedophile ring run by Democrats and prominent left-leaning figures. The first “Q drop,” or posting from “Q,” occurred in October 2017; within a month, a movement had formed around the drops. Over the past few years, QAnon has grown to incorporate other conspiratorial beliefs and to become somewhat more amorphous. The movement has demonstrated the ability to motivate some people, especially volatile or unbalanced people, to violence ranging from murders to terrorist incidents.

The Shape of Right-Wing Terror

The 67 right-wing terror incidents from 2017-2022 differ considerably in their nature, from incipient plots caught by law enforcement well before any violent act could be carried out to deadly shooting sprees causing numerous casualties. Many acts were plotted or committed by lone perpetrators, while others involved members of a cell or group working together. The range of targets was very broad, though the range of weapons used or considered was much narrower.

Overall, less than half of the 67 incidents (29 of 67, or 43%) could be considered “successful.”  Success is defined here not as terrorists meeting their intended goals, which in some cases were quite unrealistic, but more modestly in terms of whether the perpetrators were able to cause harm to persons or property. So, for example, the attack by an anti-abortion extremist who intended to burn down a clinic but only succeeded in damaging it would still be considered a success.  Most failures were caused by law enforcement stopping the perpetrator(s) before any act could be carried out. However, one failure occurred when a bomb set at an abortion clinic by a militia group failed to detonate; another failure happened when a white supremacist who intended to burn down a synagogue was deterred by security cameras on the scene and decided at the last minute to commit an act of vandalism instead.

The vast majority (48 of 67, or 72%) of incidents involved just a single perpetrator. Eight incidents had two perpetrators, while fewer still had more than two participants (see chart). The two incidents involving the most participants were the 2020 attempt by militia members to kidnap the governor of Michigan and the 2021 storming of the Capitol (combined into one incident for this report). Lone perpetrators were far more likely to succeed in causing harm than multiple perpetrators. The 48 lone perpetrators achieved a success rate of 52%, while incidents with more than one perpetrator succeeded in causing harm only 21% of the time (see chart).  Lone perpetrators were also responsible for the deadliest attacks, which all came in the form of shooting sprees. Incidents involving multiple perpetrators were the easiest for law enforcement to detect and prevent.

Regardless of the number of perpetrators, most of the terror incidents were not committed by organized extremist groups acting as groups. Even when there was more than one perpetrator, the actors involved usually constituted a loose, informal cell. Though there is a general impression that terrorist acts are committed by “terrorist groups,” that is not the reality for most domestic terrorism in the United States. Extremist groups in the United States, unlike those in lawless or semi-lawless areas of the world, tend to play more of a radicalizing and propaganda role. Groups that embark upon campaigns of violence tend to be shut down quickly by law enforcement. The accelerationist neo-Nazi group The Base is a good example. Members of The Base were arrested for three different terrorist plots in 2020 (see list of incidents, below) as part of a broader crackdown by the federal government on violent white supremacist accelerationists. These and other Base-related arrests effectively destroyed The Base as a functioning extremist group.

The most popular weapon of choice in the right-wing terror incidents of 2017-2022 was the firearm. Firearms were used or chosen to be used as the weapon in 27 of the 67 incidents (40%). In two additional incidents, perpetrators used or planned to use firearms and another type of weapon (thermite in one case and explosives in the other). The second most common type of weapon was incendiary devices, featured in 17 incidents (25%). Explosives were the chosen weapon for 12 incidents (18%), but these incidents were rarely successful. In almost every case, plots involving bombs were stopped by law enforcement before they could be carried out. A rare exception was the August 2017 bombing of a mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota, by members of a small Illinois-based militia group. Other weapons ranged from a hammer up all the way up to a train. In some incidents — typically cases where the perpetrator was caught early in the plotting stages — the intended weapon was unclear.

Firearms and incendiary devices are both easy to obtain and easy to use. Guns, even military-style assault weapons, are ubiquitous in the United States, and easy for most people to purchase, while incendiary devices can often be assembled from household items. Neither requires experience or training to use. It’s not a coincidence that firearms and incendiary devices were both more common and more likely to be successful than a weapon like a bomb, which must be safely constructed before it can even be used.

Those terror attacks that were successful caused a tremendous amount of harm, killing 58 people — all but one from firearm wounds — and wounding or injuring dozens more. These figures do not count police officers injured during the January 6, 2021, Capitol storming, which would add at least 130 more wounded/injured to the total. In addition, 16 properties were damaged or destroyed. Religious institutions and abortion clinics were the properties most likely to be damaged or destroyed.

As bad as these totals are, the actual harm was even greater, thanks to the very nature of terrorism. Terrorist incidents shocked and spread fear in the people across the towns and cities in which they occurred and, in the worst incidents, affected the entire country. Attacks directed against specific communities, such as the Black, Muslim or Jewish communities, caused suffering for the people of those communities no matter where they resided. Attacks or plots against law enforcement and the military threatened institutions dedicated to protecting all people.

The extremists behind the terrorist incidents of 2017-2022 attacked or considered attacking a wide array of targets. Many perpetrators considered multiple targets — often because law enforcement efforts interrupted their plots before they could narrow targets to a single choice.

Government targets constituted the most common type of target considered by the perpetrators, with 18 of 67 incidents (27%) including a government target, though this is a broad target type that includes federal, state and local government, as well as law enforcement. Almost as common were attacks or planned attacks against religious targets (17 of 67, or 25%), all of which targeted Jews (or people perceived to be Jews) or Muslims. Abortion-related targets featured in nine incidents (13%), while eight incidents (12%) targeted individuals based on race and were primarily directed against the Black community. Women were targeted in four incidents (6%), primarily by extremists associated with toxic masculinity subcultures, while the LGBTQ+ community was targeted in two incidents. 

Extremists also targeted media entities and other types of businesses, while some plotted to attack the military or infrastructure targets. The latter included several plots against the power grid, although it is worth noting that no right-wing extremists have yet been arrested for any of the actual shooting incidents against power substations and similar facilities that occurred in 2021-2023.

List of Right-Wing Domestic Terror Incidents, 2017-2022

2022

Maryville, Tennessee, December 16, 2022. Edward Kelley of Maryville, Tennessee, and Austin Carter of Knoxville, Tennessee, were arrested in mid-December 2022 by FBI agents on conspiracy charges for an alleged plot to kill 37 law enforcement officers, including FBI agents who were investigating Kelley for his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol storming in Washington, D.C. The pair also allegedly plotted to attack the local FBI office in Knoxville.

Colorado Springs, November 19, 2022. Anderson Lee Aldrich was charged with 317 crimes, including five counts of first-degree murder, for a November 19, 2022 shooting spree against an LGBTQ+ nightclub. Aldrich appears to have tried but failed to livestream the deadly attack. Some months before the attack, Aldrich had created a small 4chan-like website in which he “showcased” an accelerationist white supremacist video called “Wrong Target,” the purpose of which was to convince people to launch violent attacks against Jews, racial minorities and other targets.

New York, New York, November 19, 2022. A grand jury in New York City indicted Matthew Mahrer and Christopher Brown on conspiracy, threat and weapons charges following their arrest on November 19 as they tried to enter Penn Station with firearms, bulletproof vests and masks.  Police suspect the pair was plotting to conduct a shooting at a synagogue. One of the two suspects, Brown, allegedly has a long history of white supremacist online postings.

San Francisco, California, October 28, 2022. David DePape invaded the home of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a self-described “suicide mission” to kidnap her and “break her kneecaps” to serve as an object lesson for other Democrats. Pelosi was not home at the time, but her husband, Paul Pelosi, was. DePape attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, seriously injuring him, but was quickly restrained by arriving police. DePape was a proponent of a variety of right-wing conspiracy theories ranging from election denial to QAnon. He has been charged with multiple federal and state counts related to the attack.

Warsaw, Missouri, October 7, 2022. Bryan C. Perry of Tennessee and Jonathan S. O’Dell of Missouri allegedly plotted to travel to Texas to shoot migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Perry also allegedly talked about going to war against the government and left a telephone message at the office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott saying he was “co-founder of a militia.” When FBI agents arrived at O’Dell’s home, where he and Perry were staying before they left for Texas, Perry opened fire at the agents, hitting a vehicle but injuring no one. The two were subsequently arrested.

Kalamazoo, Michigan, July 31, 2022. On the afternoon of July 31, a masked man dressed in camouflage used a combustible log and fuel to set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Kalamazoo. The exterior of the building was damaged but the interior escaped harm. Only a few days later, police arrested Joshua Brereton, charging him with arson. The criminal complaint stated that Brereton had posted a video to YouTube referring to abortion as “genocide” and encouraging others to “step out of your comfort zone” and join the fight. Brereton subsequently pleaded guilty to the arson attack and received a five-year sentence.

Struthers, Ohio, June 17, 2022. Alerted by the FBI, police in Struthers, Ohio, arrested a teenager livestreaming a video in which he allegedly announced he was going to kill his father and take his van, then shoot at Black people before conducting a mass shooting at a synagogue. Police found two handguns which had racist and antisemitic symbols and messages on them, as well as a document variously described as a journal and a manifesto. The teen admitted to police that he was a white supremacist. He has been charged with terrorist threats, domestic violence, inducing panic and threatening violence, and possessing criminal tools. Police believe the teenager was perhaps only minutes or hours away from carrying out his threats.

Brookhaven, New York, June 10, 2022. Matthew Belanger was arrested on Long Island in New York on weapons charges, but prosecutors say he was a white supremacist who, while serving as a Marine, plotted to attack a synagogue in New York, as well as to engage in homicide and sexual assault. The latter was allegedly an attempt to rape white women to increase the number of white children. He was discharged from the USMC in May 2021. Belanger was allegedly a member of the accelerationist white supremacist group Rapekrieg.

Casper, Wyoming, May 25, 2022. Lorna Roxanne Green allegedly broke into a building housing a not-yet-opened women’s health clinic in Casper, Wyoming and set fire to it, preventing the clinic—which would have provided abortions among its medical services—from opening. She was identified and arrested in March 2023.

Buffalo, New York, May 14, 2022. In an elaborately planned attack, white supremacist Payton Gendron opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, deliberately targeting Black people. His attack killed 10 people and wounded three more. His attack was modeled after previous accelerationist white supremacist terrorist attacks.

2021

Knoxville, Tennessee, December 31, 2021. A man whom authorities later identified as Mark Thomas Reno started a fire that destroyed a Planned Parenthood clinic in Knoxville, Tennessee. The arson attack was likely motivated by anti-abortion extremism. Reno previously was at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, though he did not enter. He was also responsible for a January 22, 2021, early morning shooting incident at the clinic, and subsequently fired shots at a federal building in Knoxville on July 3, 2022. He died in jail in August 2022. His role in the clinic attacks was revealed in October 2022.

Toledo, Ohio, October 31, 2021. An as-yet-unidentified person tried to set fire to a clinic in Toledo that provides abortions, using an accelerant to set fire to an exterior electrical box. Responding firefighters were able to put out the fire before it spread very far. The clinic, Capital Care, is Toledo’s only abortion clinic. The arsonist has yet to be found as of October 2023.

Austin, Texas, October 31, 2021. On Halloween, Franklin Barrett Sechriest committed an arson at an Austin synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, that caused $25,000 in damage. Authorities say Sechriest had stickers with white supremacist propaganda and symbols in his possession, as well as journals containing racist and antisemitic writings. Sechriest was indicted in March 2022 on three federal civil rights violations. He pleaded guilty to a hate crime and arson in April 2023.

Austin, Texas, September 29, 2021. A man wearing a face mask and an American flag bandana threw a Molotov cocktail at the Democratic Party headquarters for Travis County, Texas, and left a note threatening the Democratic Party. The device did not fully ignite but did start a small fire. Several days later, police arrested Ryan Faircloth for the firebombing incident. According to law enforcement, Faircloth blamed the Democratic Party office for “a lot of the issues that he saw as problems with the country.” In January 2022, Faircloth pleaded guilty to arson and subsequently received a six-year sentence.

Raleigh, North Carolina, August 20, 2021. Federal authorities announced indictments against Paul Kryscuk, Liam Collins, Jordan Duncan and Joseph Maurino, charging them with conspiracy to damage the property of an energy facility in the United States. According to the indictment, the men (who formed a small group they referred to as BSN) researched a prior attack on a power grid and gathered information about various weapons, such as thermite, and targets. They also allegedly discussed assassinating people, including a governor, during the chaos caused by power outages. Collins and Kryscuk were former members of the white supremacist Iron March forum. A subsequent indictment also charged Justin Wade Hermanson on weapons charges.  In March 2022, Kryscuk and Hermanson pleaded guilty to conspiracy; Maurino pleaded guilty in April 2023.

Atlanta, Georgia, July 30, 2021. Larry Edward Foxworth, a self-described white supremacist, conducted an attempted shooting spree from a vehicle against two convenience stores in an Atlanta suburb. Both stores had customers and staff inside when attacked, but luckily no one was hit. After his arrest, Foxworth confessed that he shot at the stores in an attempt to kill Black people and Arab people. Foxworth subsequently pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges and received a 20-year sentence.

Hillsboro, Ohio, July 21, 2021. Federal authorities arrested self-described incel Tres Genco on federal hate crime and weapons charges for plotting a shooting spree aimed at sorority members at an Ohio university. Genco composed a manifesto in which he claimed he would “slaughter” women “out of hatred, jealousy and revenge.” Genco had previously been convicted in 2020 on state terroristic threat charges for the same incident and received a 17-month sentence. He pleaded guilty in October 2022 to one count of attempting to commit a hate crime involving an attempt to murder.

Sacramento, California, July 16, 2021. Federal authorities charged Ian Benjamin Rogers and Jarrod Copeland with conspiring to firebomb the Democratic Party’s state headquarters in Sacramento. Rogers was already in custody for threats he made in January against the governor and social media companies, as well as 28 counts of illegal weapons and explosives. When arrested, Rogers had five pipe bombs and dozens of weapons in his home and shop. Both men had ties to the “Three Percenter” wing of the militia movement. The two planned a series of attacks they hoped would mobilize people angry at Trump’s election loss. Both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2022. In March 2023, Rogers received a 108-month sentence and Copeland a 54-month sentence.

Winthrop, Massachusetts, June 26, 2021. White supremacist Nathan Allen stole a truck and crashed it into a residence in Winthrop, Massachusetts. As people in the neighborhood responded, Allen walked by several white people to shoot two people of color, a man and a woman. He shot one victim seven times, including four times in the head, and the other victim three times in the back, killing both. Responding police shot and killed Allen. Subsequent searches revealed that Allen possessed considerable white supremacist literature as well as journals in which recorded his racist and antisemitic beliefs, including the idea that white people were superior “apex predators.” He also wrote that “whites in the US will snap and kill all the shitskins."

Kerrville, Texas, May 30, 2021. Federal and local authorities arrested Coleman Thomas Blevins, a white supremacist from Kerr County, Texas, after determining that Blevins was “preparing to proceed” with a mass shooting targeting a local Walmart. However, as of this writing, prosecutors have only charged him with making a terrorist threat. Blevins is allegedly associated with an accelerationist white supremacist group called the Inject Division.

St. Cloud, Minnesota, April 17, 2021. Federal authorities arrested Michael Dahlager, a Minnesota adherent of the anti-government boogaloo movement, on a weapons charge after Dahlager allegedly told a confidential informant he was planning to attack law enforcement officers at the Minnesota Capitol on January 17, 2021. However, he abandoned the plot shortly before January 17, reportedly out of fear an informant had infiltrated his group. Later in 2021, Dahlager pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a machine gun and received a two-year sentence.

Fort Worth, Texas, April 8, 2021. In a sting operation, FBI agents arrested Seth Aaron Pendley on charges related to a plot to blow up Amazon data centers. Pendley, an anti-government extremist who posted on militia sites, hoped his actions would cause a government crackdown that would mobilize people finally to take action against what he termed the "dictatorship." Pendley pleaded guilty in June 2021 and received a 10-year sentence.

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021. On January 6, 2021, more than a thousand people stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., intent on halting the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election. Among them were several groups of people, including numerous members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Patriots 45 Maga Gang and militia members/Three Percenters who allegedly planned their actions in advance. In several different cases, federal authorities have indicted such people on multiple serious counts, including conspiracy and seditious conspiracy charges. Those convicted include the leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes. In 2022, Joshua James, Brian Ulrich and William Todd Wilson, all Oath Keepers, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges. Later that year, a jury convicted Rhodes and another Oath Keepers leader of seditious conspiracy, and three other Oath Keepers of related charges; Rhodes was subsequently sentenced to 18 years in prison. In January 2023, four more Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges. In May 2023, four Proud Boys, including Tarrio, were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges. A fifth was found guilty of other charges.

2020

Springfield, Massachusetts, December 28, 2020. In 2022, Federal prosecutors indicted Dushko Vulchev of Houlton, Maine, on federal hate crime charges for a 2020 arson that destroyed a predominantly Black church in Springfield, Massachusetts named after Martin Luther King, Jr.  According to investigators, Vulchev displayed evidence of racism and white supremacy, including “White Lives Matter” memes, photos of Adolf Hitler and requests for help to “eliminate all Black people.” 

Bad Axe, Michigan, October 30, 2020. Four members of The Base, a neo-Nazi group, were arrested on state charges, including training with the intent of committing civil disorder, related to activities that included various potential terrorist plots, including attacking VICE News offices and ambushing and killing police officers. In August 2022, Justen Watkins, the leader of The Base, received a sentence of 56 months to 20 years. Two other defendants, Thomas Denton and Tristan Webb, also pleaded no contest to the charges against them. Denton was sentenced to a maximum of 48 months in prison, while Webb received a sentence of probation. Alfred Gorman pleaded guilty and also received a sentence of probation.

Munith, Michigan, October 7, 2020. Federal and state authorities in Michigan arrested 13 men associated with a militia cell called the Wolverine Watchmen on charges related to an alleged plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. Later, a 14th man was also arrested. Six face federal charges stemming from the case while the remaining eight face state charges. Some of the defendants were also associated with the anti-government extremist boogaloo movement. Two federal defendants pleaded guilty, while two others were acquitted at trial; the jury could not agree on the guilt of the remaining two. Those two defendants, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, Jr., were convicted in a second trial in 2022. The convicted federal defendants received sentences from four years up to 16 years (Fox) and nearly 20 years (Croft). Of the state defendants, three were acquitted while the other five pleaded guilty or were convicted in court.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 3, 2020. Federal agents arrested Benjamin Teeter and Michael Solomon, two adherents of the anti-government boogaloo movement, charging them with conspiring to provide material support to the terrorist group Hamas in order to get assistance for their own plans, which included targeting politicians and media members, a courthouse, monuments and a white supremacist group. In May 2021, Solomon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support and received a three-year sentence; Teeter similarly pleaded guilty and received a four-year sentence. 

Columbus, Ohio, August 1, 2020. Three accelerationist white supremacists were arrested in August 2020 on charges related to a plot to attack the power grid in hopes of starting a race war.  The plot primarily took place in 2019-2020. Arrested were Christopher Brenner Cook, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost of Katy, Texas; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In February 2022, the three pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Cook subsequently received a 92-month sentence and Frost a 60-month sentence. Sawall has yet to be sentenced as of June 2023.

Vicenza, Italy, June 10, 2020. U.S. Army private and white supremacist Ethan Melzer was arrested at a military installation in Vicenza, Italy, charged on numerous counts related to a plot to have members of an occult white supremacist group, the Order of the Nine Angles, and the associated group RapeWaffen Division attack his military unit after it deployed to another country. Melzer was charged by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which handles such cases. In June 2022, Melzer pleaded guilty to attempting to murder military members, material support to terrorism and illegally transmitting national defense information. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison in March 2023.

Las Vegas, Nevada, May 30, 2020. Three men -- Stephen Parshall, Andrew Lynam, and William Loomis -- with ties to the anti-government boogaloo movement were arrested on conspiracy charges in Las Vegas for an alleged plot to use Molotov cocktails against police at a protest over the killing of George Floyd. They had also discussed firebombing a power substation and destroying government buildings. As of June 2023, the men have not yet seen trial for these charges, though Parshall was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in federal prison on charges related to child sexual exploitation in a second case that emerged from the first.

Oakland, California, May 29, 2020. On May 29, two men attacked security personnel outside a federal courthouse in Oakland, California in a drive-by shooting, killing Federal Protective Services officer David Patrick Underwood and wounding another. Subsequently arrested for the attack were Steven Carrillo and Robert Justus Jr., who were associated with the anti-government extremist boogaloo movement. Carrillo faces federal murder charges and Justus faces charges of attempted murder and aiding and abetting murder. Carrillo shot and killed a sheriff’s sergeant on June 6 when law enforcement attempted to arrest him for the earlier attack. In February 2022, Carrillo pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the initial attack and subsequently received a 41-year sentence. In August 2022, Carrillo received a life sentence without parole in state court after pleading guilty to the murder of the sheriff’s sergeant.  In September 2023, Justus was convicted of murder and attempted murder.

Glendale, Arizona, May 20, 2020. Armando Hernandez, Jr. was arrested by Glendale, Arizona police on 16 criminal charges following a shooting at a shopping center that injured three people. Prosecutors have said Hernandez was an adherent of the misogynistic incel subculture and specifically targeted couples. In 2022, Hernandez pleaded guilty to multiple charges; he subsequently received a 44-year sentence.

Loveland, Colorado, May 1, 2020. Federal agents arrested anti-government extremist Bradley Bunn on explosives charges after discovering four pipe bombs at his home and the makings for more. According to investigators, Bunn intended to use the bombs against law enforcement. In March 2021, Bunn pleaded guilty to five federal explosives charges; in October 2021 he received a sentence of time served.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri, April 24, 2020. Authorities charged Nicholas Proffitt with multiple federal felony counts related to an arson at a mosque in Cape Girardeau. Proffitt, who appears to have considerable anti-Muslim animus, previously spent time in prison for felony vandalism against the same mosque in 2009, and similarly vandalized a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan in 2005. Proffitt pleaded guilty to hate crime and arson charges in December 2022. 

Texarkana, Texas, April 11, 2020. Police arrested boogaloo extremist Aaron Swenson following a car chase and brief standoff after he livestreamed himself saying he was going to “ambush and execute” a police officer. Swenson was convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer and in September 2021 received a 50-year sentence. 

Los Angeles, California, March 31, 2020. Eduardo Moreno, a former train engineer, deliberately drove a train at top speed in order to derail it near a U.S. Navy hospital ship providing medical assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic at the Port of Los Angeles. Moreno, influenced by QAnon conspiracy theories and believing the ship was there for sinister purposes, told authorities he wanted to “wake people up.” After pleading guilty to one count of committing a terrorist attack or other violence against railroad carriers and mass transportation systems, he was sentenced in April 2022 to three years in federal prison.

Belton, Missouri, March 24, 2020. White supremacist Timothy Wilson plotted to blow up a hospital caring for COVID-19 patients in the Kansas City area, wanting to cause mass casualties. He was killed in a shootout with the FBI as they attempted to arrest him.

Silver Creek, Georgia, January 15, 2020. Three members of The Base, a white supremacist group, were arrested in Georgia on charges related to a plot to murder people they thought were antifa activists. All three subsequently pleaded guilty. Michael John Helterbrand received a 20-year sentence, while Luke Austin Lane and Jacob Oliver Kaderli received six-year sentences.

Greenbelt, Maryland, January 14, 2020. Three members of the white supremacist group The Base, two from Maryland and one a Canadian national, (William Garfield Bilbrough IV, Brian Mark Lemley and Patrik Jordan Matthews) were charged with weapons violations and other offenses. The members discussed opening fire at a pro-gun rally in Virginia in order to sow chaos. They also plotted to target the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. All three pleaded guilty to various charges and received nine-year sentences (Lemley and Matthews) and a five-year sentence (Bilbrough).

Newark, Delaware, January 3, 2020. James Gulick was arrested for using a Molotov cocktail to firebomb a Planned Parenthood clinic in Newark, Delaware. He pleaded guilty in February 2021 to two charges of intention damage to a facility providing reproductive health services and to possession of an unregistered destructive device. He subsequently received a 26-month sentence.

2019

Gainesville, Georgia, November 19, 2019. Police arrested a teenage girl on charges of criminal intent to commit murder in connection with an alleged knife attack plot against a Black church in Gainesville, Georgia. The plot was inspired by Dylann Roof’s 2015 shooting spree in South Carolina. On two occasions, the girl went to the church armed with knives, but no one was there. In October 2020, the girl pleaded guilty to planning murders and was sentenced to juvenile detention until she turned 21.

Pueblo, Colorado, November 1, 2019. Federal authorities arrested white supremacist Richard Holzer on multiple charges related to a plot to blow up a synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado. Holzer pleaded guilty in October 2020 to hate crime and explosives charges; he subsequently received a sentence of more than 19 years in prison.

Independence, Kentucky, September 15, 2019. Daniel Kibler was arrested on terroristic threat charges for allegedly threatening to attack a Planned Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kibler had not merely made a threat but also reportedly constructed an incendiary device that police said he intended to throw at the building to set it on fire. He was also charged with possession of a destructive device and eight counts of wanton endangerment. The disposition of his case is not known.

Las Vegas, Nevada, August 8, 2019. White supremacist Conor Climo was arrested on a federal weapons charge in connection with a plot to attack several Las Vegas-area targets, including a Messianic church, an ADL office and an LGBTQ-friendly bar. Bomb-making materials were also found at his home. Climo pleaded guilty in February 2020 to one count of possessing bomb components and subsequently received a sentence of two years in prison. 

El Paso, Texas, August 3, 2019. White supremacist Patrick Crusius launched a shooting spree targeting Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people initially and injuring 24 more; in 2020 one of the injured died of wounds sustained in the attack, changing the death toll to 23 killed and 23 injured.

Poway, California, April 27, 2019. White supremacist John T. Earnest opened fire at a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person and injuring three before fleeing. He was reportedly emulating white supremacist Brenton Tarrant's killing spree in New Zealand in March 2019. In 2021, Earnest pleaded guilty to a 113-count indictment and received a sentence of life plus 30 years. See also: March 24, 2019 incident.

Escondido, California, March 24, 2019. White supremacist John T. Earnest set fire to a mosque in Escondido, California, leaving behind graffiti that referenced Brenton Tarrant's white supremacist shooting spree in New Zealand earlier that month. People inside the mosque were able to put out the fire. See also: April 27, 2019, incident. 

Silver Spring, Maryland, February 15, 2019. Coast Guard lieutenant Christopher P. Hasson, a white supremacist, was arrested by federal authorities on weapon and drug charges in connection with a terrorist plot to attack politicians and media figures. In October 2019, Hasson pleaded guilty to four federal charges and subsequently received a sentence of more than 13 years in prison. 

Columbia, Missouri, February 10, 2019. A Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri, was set on fire. After an investigation, federal authorities arrested Wesley Brian Kaster, charging him with maliciously damaging by fire or explosive a building owned by an organization receiving federal funding. Kaster pleaded guilty to arson in November 2019 and subsequently received a five-year sentence.

Greece, New York, January 22, 2019. Four anti-Muslim extremists were arrested in New York on conspiracy, weapons and terrorism charges for a plot to use bombs to attack the Muslim community of Islamberg, New York. Arrested were Vincent Vetromile, Brian Colaneri, Andrew Crysel and an individual who was 16 at the time of his arrest.  All four pleaded guilty in 2019; Crysel and Colaneri received sentences of four to 12 years in prison, while the other two received seven-year sentences.

2018

Tallahassee, Florida, November 2, 2018. Scott Beierle conducted a shooting spree at a yoga studio, killing two and wounding or injuring five more before killing himself. Beierle, who had posted racist and misogynistic videos to YouTube, appears to have been motivated by the extreme misogyny of the toxic masculinity subculture.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 27, 2018. White supremacist Robert Gregory Bowers conducted a deadly shooting spree at the Tree of Life synagogue, killing 11 and wounding seven more. Bowers was motivated by antisemitic and anti-immigrant convictions. Bowers was convicted in a federal trial that began in April 2023; in August, he was sentenced to death.

West Palm Beach, Florida, October 1, 2018. Cesar Altieri Sayoc, Jr. was arrested by authorities in West Palm Beach for allegedly mailing at least 15 explosive devices in late October to a variety of public figures around the country known for their opposition to Donald Trump. Sayoc pleaded guilty to 65 counts in March 2019 and subsequently received a 20-year sentence.

Carmel, Indiana, July 28, 2018. White supremacist Nolan Brewer plotted to burn down a synagogue in Carmel, Indiana. However, when he showed up at the synagogue, he was deterred by its security cameras and at the last minute aborted his plot and committed an act of vandalism instead. He pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime and received a three-year sentence.

Watsonville, California, July 1, 2018. A hooded arsonist was caught on video trying to set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Watsonville in July 2018; firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze before serious damage occurred. A reward has been offered for the perpetrator.

Irvine, California, April 1, 2018. Orange County police officers arrested Nicholas Rose after a family member tipped them off that Rose was plotting to kill Jews. A subsequent investigation revealed he had “kill lists” of prominent Jews and a list of steps he titled “killing my first Jew.” Rose also was concerned about “white genocide,” a common white supremacist trope. Rose pleaded guilty in 2019 and received a sentence of two years and three months.

2017

Jacksonville, Florida, December 1, 2017. Bernardino Bolatete was arrested in December 2017 for planning a mass shooting at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida. Undercover officers met with Bolatete, who espoused anti-Muslim views and made several threats to shoot up the mosque. In May 2018, he was convicted on the firearms charge; he subsequently received a five-year sentence.

Champaign, Illinois, November 1, 2017. Three people, Emily Claire Hari (formerly known as Michael Hari), Joe Morris and Michael McWhorter, members of the White Rabbit Militia, were arrested in November 2017 after they allegedly drove to Champaign, Illinois to bomb the Women's Health Practice, which performed abortions. They threw an explosive device into the building, but it failed to detonate. See also: the August 2017 incident in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Oklee, Minnesota, October 1, 2017. Eric James Reinbold was arrested after a cache of pipe bombs was discovered on his property; a subsequent investigation reportedly discovered writings by Reinbold about sparking a “second American Revolution” and a range of targets, including the IRS, law enforcement, feminists, teacher conventions and the rich. Reinhold received a five-year sentence after being convicted for possession of unregistered destructive devices. Later granted compassionate release from prison for health issues, Reinbold was arrested again in August 2021 and convicted on murder charges for stabbing his wife; he received a 40-year sentence.

Oklahoma City, August 1, 2017. Anti-government extremist Jerry Drake Varnell was arrested in August 2017 after he attempted to detonate an explosives-filled van outside the BancFirst building in Oklahoma City. The van did not contain real explosives, however, as Varnell was the subject of an undercover sting investigation. Varnell was charged with attempting to use an explosive device and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against interstate commerce. A federal jury convicted Varnell in February 2019; he subsequently received a 25-year sentence.

Bloomington, Minnesota, August 1, 2017. Four members of a small militia group dubbed the White Rabbit Militia were arrested in August 2017. Three of the members — Emily Claire Hari (known at the time as Michael Hari), Joe Morris and Michael McWhorter — drove to Bloomington, Minnesota to bomb the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center mosque. Also arrested, for other crimes but not this bombing, was Ellis Mack. The group also allegedly robbed Walmart stores and attempted to rob suspected drug traffickers in December 2017. In January 2018, they allegedly planted an incendiary device on railroad tracks and tried to extort money from a railway company by threatening to destroy more tracks. See also: the November 2017 abortion clinic bombing attempt. Hari was subsequently convicted on all counts and received a 53-year sentence. Morris and McWhorter pleaded guilty and received sentences of 170 months and 190 months, respectively.

Missoula, Montana, May 16, 2017. Lloyd Montier Barrus and his son Marshall Barrus, both anti-government extremists, deliberately attacked and murdered a Broadwater County sheriff’s deputy, Mason Moore. Police fatally shot the younger Barrus after he fired at them, then arrested the elder Barrus and charged him with deliberate homicide and 16 counts of attempted deliberate homicide. In September 2021, the elder Barrus was convicted of three counts of deliberate homicide by accountability and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide; he was subsequently sentenced to three concurrent life sentences.

Tampa, Florida, May 1, 2017. Brandon Russell, a leader of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, was arrested in May 2017 after a shooting incident in which his roommate, Devon Arthurs, also an Atomwaffen member, killed their two other roommates (also members of Atomwaffen). The investigation into the shooting uncovered explosive ingredients (as well as radioactive substances) in Russell's garage. Prosecutors alleged Russell planned to use explosives to attack targets that included synagogues, nuclear facilities and civilian targets. In September 2017, Russell pleaded guilty to possessing a destructive device and storing explosive material. In his guilty plea -- not part of a plea deal -- Russell denied intending to make bombs. In early 2018, he received a five-year prison sentence.  He was released in August 2021 but was arrested again in February 2023, along with Sarah Clendaniel, for another terrorist plot involving targeting power stations. That arrest is too recent for the scope of this report.

Brighton, Tennessee, May 1, 2017. Sovereign citizen Patricia Parsons was arrested in May 2017 for her involvement in a plot to kidnap a judge and a sheriff and take them to Canada. In December 2017, Parsons was sentenced to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty in September to aiding and abetting solicitation to commit kidnapping. A Canadian woman was also allegedly involved in the plot.

New York, New York, March 30, 2017. White supremacist James Harris Jackson traveled from Maryland to New York City to attack Black men in an effort to deter white women from entering into interracial relationships. He fatally stabbed Timothy Caughman, a Black man, to death with a 26-inch “mini sword” before turning himself in to police and was charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime and, later, with state charges of terrorism. In January 2019, Jackson pleaded guilty to murder as terrorism and as a hate crime; he subsequently received a sentence of life in prison without parole. 

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, February 1, 2017. White supremacist Benjamin McDowell was arrested in February 2017 for possessing a firearm and ammunition even though he was a felon, making repeated antisemitic postings on social media and wanting to commit a “big scale” act of violence “in the spirit of Dylann Roof.” In early 2018, McDowell pleaded guilty to a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.  In July 2018, McDowell received a 33-month sentence. 

Victoria, Texas, January 1, 2017. Marq Vincent Perez was arrested in January 2017 for an arson at the Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Texas. In March 2017, he was charged with damaging a religious property (as a hate crime) and using fire to commit a federal felony. He was also charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device for an unrelated incident. During his trial he was described as an anti-Muslim extremist. In 2018, Perez was found guilty and sentenced to 294 months in prison.

Policy Recommendations

We need a whole-of-government approach to address the threat of right-wing extremism. The framework that ADL has created — the PROTECT plan — is a comprehensive, seven-part plan to mitigate the threat posed by domestic extremism and domestic terrorism while protecting civil rights and civil liberties. Together, focusing on these seven categories can have an immediate and deeply significant impact in preventing and countering domestic terrorism — more so than any one action, policy, or law — and can do so while protecting civil rights and liberties and ensuring that government overreach does not harm the same vulnerable people and communities that these extremists target. Our suggestions come under these seven areas:

Prioritize Preventing and Countering Domestic Terrorism

Resource According to the Threat

Oppose Extremists in Government Service

Take Public Health and Other Domestic Terrorism Prevention Measures

End the Complicity of Social Media in Facilitating Extremism

Create an Independent Clearinghouse for Online Extremist Content

Target Foreign White Supremacist Terrorist Groups for Sanctions

Prioritize Preventing and Countering Domestic Terrorism

First, we urge Congress to adopt a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to preventing and countering domestic terrorism.

• In June 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration released the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Domestic Terrorism. The strategy is laudable, and a step in the right direction. However, many critical details were left unaddressed. ADL worked with partners to push the Administration for further details into how the plan would be implemented, and the steps that should be taken to ensure protection for civil rights and civil liberties. We welcomed the fact sheet released at the two-year anniversary. However, Congress must push for further details and departments and agencies must create their own implementation plans for the Strategy.
  • In addition, the White House should name a senior level Domestic Terrorism Director at the National Security Council whose exclusive, full-time focus is addressing domestic terrorism and hate-motivated violence in the United States. The appointment and public announcement would send a message to the American people – and specifically those targeted by domestic violent extremism – that this remains an unwavering priority for the Administration. 
• In September 2022, the White House held the United We Stand Summit to address hate-fueled violence. Bringing together impacted communities with experts on hate and extremism is a critical effort. We urge the Administration and Congress to work together to ensure that the United We Stand effort is an ongoing, fully funded and fully supported endeavor.
• The Biden-Harris Administration released a National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in May 2023, which notes the connection between violent extremism, white supremacist conspiracy theories and attacks against Jewish communities and other targeted groups and lays out more than 200 policy proposals to holistically combat the problem. ADL welcomed the release of the historic and comprehensive U.S. strategy, as well as an update in October in which eight federal agencies clarified — for the first time in writing — that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits certain forms of antisemitic, Islamophobic and related forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities. For the strategy to succeed, we urge Congress to commit to its implementation.
  • See ADL’s COMBAT Plan for a full spectrum of recommendations to directly tackle antisemitism on the international, federal and state level.
• We urge robust funding for programs like the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships and the Homeland Security Grant Program. Difficult funding decisions need to be made across all areas of public policy, but efforts to counter serious threats from domestic violent extremism must be top priorities.
• The Non-Profit Security Grant Program (NSGP) provides non-profits with the capacity to increase their defense against these threats, including physical security and cybersecurity capacity and coordination. Despite recent increases in the NSGP program, as extremism threats continue to rise, the need continues to be greater than the resources provided, as outlined in previous Presidential budget requests. In FY 2023, FEMA received $675 million in grant applications, yet only $42% were funded. At a time of increased vulnerability to threats of hate-motivated violence by domestic extremists, Congress should significantly increase funding for non-profit religious institutions and other non-profit organizations that government and law enforcement authorities objectively determine are at high risk of attack to no less than $360 million for FY 2024. Funding is especially critical as more than 50 swatting incidents (hoax bomb threats) targeted Jewish synagogues and communal institutions across more than a dozen states around the Jewish high holidays.
  • In assessing the risk, the Administration should consider objective factors such as prior attacks against similarly situated institutions or organizations, and the vulnerability and financial needs of the specific institution. Officials should also consider what the criteria for “terroristic threats” are and how they should be included by NGOs when they are assessing such threats for their applications. For example, the current inclusions are relatively narrow and could potentially leave out some nuanced, yet pervasive, extremist threats that are strongly influenced by white supremacy, antisemitism or misogyny. And finally, these programs should seek to promote equity by expanding the reach of the grant to more communities affected by security threats and experiencing other vulnerabilities.

Resource According to the Threat

We must ensure that the authorities and resources the government uses to address violent threats are proportionate to the risk of the lethality of those threats. In other words, allocation of resources must never be politicized but rather based on transparent and objective security concerns.

• The Congress was unable to pass the bipartisan Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act (DTPA) to enhance the federal government’s efforts to prevent domestic terrorism by formally authorizing offices to address domestic terrorism and requiring law enforcement agencies to regularly report on domestic terrorist threats. Congress should reconsider the DTPA in this Congress, or at minimum, ensure that those offices are created, that they have the resources they need and that they deploy those resources in a manner proportionate to existing threats. Further, the transparency that comes with regular reporting is crucial for civil society, Congress and the public writ large to help oversee the national security process and hold leaders accountable.
• Congress must exercise careful oversight to ensure that no resources are expended on counterterrorism efforts targeting protected political speech or association. Investigations and other efforts to mitigate the threat should be data-driven and proportionate to the violent threat posed by violent extremist movements.
• Data drives policy, and as such, Congress must empower high-quality, comprehensive data to understand threats related to hate and democracy. For example, the annual FBI hate crimes statistics demonstrate a systematic gap in reporting by law enforcement agencies. This gap must be filled, including through support for hate crimes data collection resources and requirements for mandatory reporting by law enforcement agencies.

Oppose Extremists in Government Service

It is essential that we recognize the potential for harm when extremists gain positions of power, including in government, law enforcement, and the military.

• To the extent permitted by law and consistent with Constitutional protections, take steps to ensure that individuals engaged in violent extremist activity or associated with violent extremist movements, including the white supremacist movement and the militia movement, are deemed unsuitable for employment at the federal, state and local levels — including in law enforcement. Appropriate steps must be taken to address any current employees, who, upon review, match these criteria.
• To the extent permitted by law and consistent with Constitutional protections, take steps to ensure that individuals engaged in violent extremist activity or associated with violent extremist movements including the white supremacist movement and the militia movement, are not given security clearances or other sensitive law enforcement credentials. Appropriate steps must be taken to address any current employees, who, upon review, match these criteria. Law enforcement agencies nationwide should explore options for preventing extremists from being among their ranks.
  • ADL has worked with Law Enforcement experts to provide tools for identifying and weeding out extremists in the recruitment process as well as within law enforcement ranks. While there is no evidence that white supremacist extremists have large numbers in our law enforcement agencies, we have seen that even a few can undermine the effectiveness and trust that is so essential. We have provided resources to LE agencies with guidance on approaches that do not violate First Amendment concerns.
• More must be done to address the problem of extremism within the military, train officials for how to address it and scale efforts to fully ensure that members of our armed forces are not targeted for recruitment to extremist causes.
  • One step is including two provisions from the House Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the final FY 2024 NDAA. 
    • Report language that will identify gaps in the DOD security clearance process. 
    • Report language that will require the Secretary of Defense to report on the implementation and status of its training and education for DOD members and civil personnel on protecting the military from extremist recruitment and activity.
• DHS announced that it reviewed internal extremist threats, though noted that there were no mechanisms for doing so systematically or comprehensively.  DHS and law enforcement agencies must have these protocols in place.

Take Domestic Terrorism Prevention Measures

We must not wait until after someone has become an extremist or a terrorist attack has happened to act. Effective and promising prevention measures exist, which should be scaled.

• Congress can provide funding to civil society and academic programs that have expertise in addressing recruitment to extremist causes and radicalization, whether online or offline. By providing funding for prevention activities, including education, counseling and off-ramping, Congress can help empower public health and civil society actors to prevent and intervene in the radicalization process and undermine extremist narratives, particularly those that spread rapidly on the internet.
• These initiatives must be accompanied by an assurance of careful oversight with civil rights and civil liberties safeguards. They must also meaningfully engage the communities that have been targeted by domestic terrorism and the civil society organizations already existing within them, and those communities which have been unfairly targeted when prior anti-terrorism authorities have been misused and/or abused. These initiatives must be transparent, responsive to community concerns, publicly demonstrate careful oversight, and ensure that they do not stigmatize communities.
  • Further, DHS should not be the only agency working on prevention; ADL urges the Department to partner with Health and Human Services and other non-security Departments whenever possible.
• While Congress has funded a small grant program for prevention measures domestically, the program is too small to have an impact at scale. Congress should significantly scale the Center for Prevention Programming and Partnerships (CP3) within DHS, such as through $200 million per year in grants and a proportionate increase in program evaluations, the results of which should be published for public view. 
• DHS should be empowered to support research and innovation to address domestic violent extremism. However, there have been reports that research and innovation related to domestic violent extremist radicalization has been halted at DHS, which would be troubling; we urge Congress to ensure there is adequate implementation of research and innovation.

End the Complicity of Social Media in Facilitating Extremism

Congress must prioritize countering online extremism and ensuring that perpetrators who engage in unlawful activity online can be held accountable. Online platforms often lack adequate policies to mitigate extremism and hate equitably and at scale. Federal and state laws and policies require significant updating to hold online platforms and individual perpetrators accountable for enabling hate, racism and extremist violence across the internet. In March 2021, ADL announced the REPAIR Plan, which offers a comprehensive framework for platforms and policymakers to take meaningful action to decrease online hate and extremism. Like ADL’s PROTECT Plan, REPAIR addresses domestic extremism and terrorism but goes beyond these issues to address other manifestations and harms of online hate, including online harassment, antisemitism, racism and disinformation.

Create an Independent Clearinghouse for Online Extremist Content

Congress should work with the Biden-Harris Administration to create a publicly funded, independent nonprofit center to track online extremist threat information in real-time and make referrals to social media companies and law enforcement agencies when appropriate.

• This approach is needed because those empowered with law enforcement and intelligence capabilities must not be tasked with new investigative and other powers that could infringe upon civil liberties – for example, through broad internet surveillance. Scouring online sources through an independent organization will act as a buffer but will not prevent the nonprofit center from assisting law enforcement in cases where criminal behavior is suspected. This wall of separation, modeled in part on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), will help streamline national security tips and resources while preserving civil liberties.
• In FY2022 appropriations, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) was provided with $500,000 to investigate the feasibility of this concept.  NIJ should be empowered to complete its review, and Congress should quickly follow up to ensure that a clearinghouse can be authorized.

Target Foreign White Supremacist Terrorist Groups

Congress must recognize that white supremacist extremism is a major global threat of our era and mobilize with that mindset.

• To date, no white supremacist organization operating overseas has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Only one – and some members of its leadership – has been designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Congress should review how these designation decisions are made, whether any additional racially or ethnically motivated extremist groups outside the United States, particularly white supremacist groups, have reached the threshold for either designation and whether such designations would help advance U.S. national interests.
• We are pleased that the Department of State developed a strategy to counter global white supremacist extremism. We urge more transparency from State in this process and for Congress to provide more resources to implement it.

The Department of State must mobilize a multilateral effort to address the threat of white supremacy globally. Multilateral best-practice institutions, such as the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund and the International Institute for Justice and Rule of Law, may be helpful mechanisms through which to channel some efforts. Moreover, the Global Engagement Center should be charged with undermining the propaganda of violent extremist groups – not just designated terrorist organizations, but overseas white supremacist violent extremists as well. DHS should participate in these efforts, supporting overseas exchanges, partnerships and best practices sharing to engage in learning from other countries and sharing U.S. best practices, where applicable.​