Navy Contractor In Riot Was Known By Colleagues For Anti-Semitic And White Supremacist Views

A U.S. Army reservist who took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack was known among colleagues for expressing white supremacist and anti-Semitic views at the naval facility where he worked as a security contractor, according to a new filing by federal prosecutors on Friday.

Politico first reported the new evidence linking the reservist, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked as a security contractor at a Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, to anti-Semitic and racist views.

The filing, which seeks to keep the reservist in prison while awaiting trial, comes as lawmakers sound the alarm over concerns about how white supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement and the military. Hale-Cusanelli’s case has been notable in highlighting that reality given his role in the Army reserves and active employment at a military facility. 

Prosecutors had previously described him as an “avowed white supremacist” and Nazi sympathizer, when Hale-Cusanelli was arrested and charged Jan. 15 for allegedly storming the Capitol.

He had discussed those views on a YouTube channel and a confidential Naval Criminal Investigative Service source offered a similar assessment. A search of Hale-Cusanelli’s phone by prosecutors also revealed anti-Semitic and racist content. 

The Friday filing provides additional details from dozens of NWS Earle colleagues in January who overwhelmingly agreed that Hale-Cusanelli held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities, and women.”

Thirty-four interviewees shared this assessment, among a group of 44 who were interviewed on Jan. 20 and 21, with one contractor colleague suggesting that Hale-Cusanelli discussed his dislike for Jews every day, according to an overview of reflections by colleagues made during the interviews.

Prosecutors said that a Navy Petty Officer remembered Hale-Cusanelli at one time allegedly saying, “Hitler should have finished the job.” 

Another remembered their reservist colleague allegedly saying at one time, “Jews, women, and blacks were on the bottom of the totem pole.”

The new evidence comes after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) issued a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray earlier this week, requesting an agency briefing on white supremacy among law enforcement. That request followed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month announcing that the nation’s military members would undertake a 60-day “stand down” as a first step in rooting out white supremacy in its ranks.

Earlier this month, Hale-Cusanelli’s lawyer, Jonathan Zucker, had requested his pretrial release saying that federal authorities had not charged his client with committing acts of violence on Jan. 6.