An ex-police chief who had his 15 minutes of fame last year in a series of profane YouTube videos is clawing his way back to the spotlight with some bizarre claims.
Mark Kessler was fired from his post as the police chief of Gilberton, Pa. in September 2013. Tensions had risen between Kessler and the borough council after videos that showed him firing machine guns at an target he called “Nancy Pelosi” and ranting against “libtards” went viral — but now he’s saying that he made the videos with a federal agency as a tool to root out anti-government extremists.
In a Tuesday interview with Fox News radio host Alan Colmes, Kessler said he did not actually believe the views he expressed in the videos and was simply acting as a “magnet” for sovereign citizens and the like.
His claims, however, were vague and offered without proof.
“I was sent out for — well I can’t really say exactly who — but I was sent out by agencies to go out and attract and investigate, whatever I can do to find out who’s who and what’s what among these groups,” he told Colmes. “When I say groups, I’m talking about Second Amendment groups, patriot groups, alleged patriot groups, militia groups, all kinds of groups.”
Kessler repeatedly refused to say what federal agency he worked with, although he did say that he contacted one of the FBI’s joint terrorism task forces. He said that Gilberton officials were not aware of what he was doing at any point in the process.
According to Kessler’s account, his videos helped take down “several plotted attacks that didn’t go through” in Georgia and Texas.
He mentioned the “XXX Minutemen,” a Georgia group that was allegedly planning to blow up a federal building, and several “wannabe terrorists” in Texas. Three Georgia men were in fact arrested early this year after discussing plans for attacks on government buildings on the “XXX Minuteman Militia” Facebook group.
But he said he was not paid for his alleged work for the government, nor offered a job with the feds down the road.
“What was in it for you?” Colmes asked.
“I got to save a lot of lives, I can tell you that,” Kessler responded.
The last we’d heard from Kessler back in February, he was founding a military-style militia group of his own and had signed a development deal for a reality TV show. As for his alleged work for the federal government, Kessler told Colmes that some cases were still under investigation but his part in it was “finished.”
