Federal prosecutors in the state of Maryland are recommending that two neo-Nazi group members be sentenced as domestic terrorists for plotting violent attacks and talking about assassinating a Jewish Virginia lawmaker.
Patrik Jordan Mathews, a former Canadian Arms Force reservist, and U.S. Army veteran Brian Mark Lemley Jr. will be sentenced on Oct. 28 after pleading guilty in June to gun charges, according to The Associated Press. The pair, who are both members of the white supremacist group The Base, have been arrested since January 2020.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that surveillance equipment caught Mathews and Lemley talking about planning an attack during a gun-rights rally at Virginia’s Capitol building; killing African-American children, destroying rail lines and power lines; and trying to break out of prison racist mass killer Dylann Roof. The filing also said that Mathews “briefly considered” assassinating the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Jewish lawmaker Eileen Filler-Corn.
Mathews pleaded guilty to four counts and could face 50 years in prison, while Lemley pleaded guilty to seven counts that could result in a maximum of 70 years behind bars.