The federal government wants an army reservist and security contractor at Earle’s Naval Weapons Station in New Jersey to be kept behind bars for his role in the Capitol uprising for his history as a Nazi sympathizer, including parading with a ‘Hitler mustache’ civil war, according to court documents.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli had “secret” security clearance for his work at the Colts Neck Navy base, but he made his political leanings known to his colleagues.
According to court documents, Hale-Cusanelli regularly made anti-Semitic and anti-minority jokes and comments to colleagues. A petty officer in the Navy told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service detectives that he was constantly talking about Jewish people and recalled saying, “Hitler should have finished the job.”
Another Navy colleague recalled Hale-Cusanelli saying that “Jews, women and blacks were at the bottom of the totem pole.” And a job supervisor said Hale-Cusanelli had been reprimanded for wearing a “Hitler mustache” to work, according to court papers filed Friday.
Investigators found multiple photos of Hale-Cusanelli with the signature “ stache on his phone, ” which they presented to the Columbia District U.S. District Court on Friday.
“However, the defendant’s affinity with Hitler and the Nazi Party went well beyond facial hair,” court papers say, showing several other photos from his phone showing hostility to Jews. One image is a cartoon depicting the Nazi party as the savior of white Americans from the republic (sic) and democratic parties, ”the court papers said. Other footage showed animosity towards black people, including George Floyd, whose murder by Minneapolis police officers sparked worldwide protests last summer.
The government acknowledged in the filing that Hale-Cusanelli’s political leanings are not enough to keep him in custody. However, according to court documents, “statements he made to investigators” make it clear that his ideology is the driving force behind his expressed desire for civil war. Since the defendant’s desire for civil war makes him a danger to the community, this Court can and must consider the defendant’s ideology in the context of his dangerousness. “
The FBI also accused Hale-Cusanelli – who faces a string of allegations stemming from his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, although not involving any act of violence – of trying to destroy the evidence in the case. He is accused of deleting his Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, all of which he used to share photos and videos of the uprising, before he was arrested.
He also deleted videos posted on his ‘Based Hermes Show’ on YouTube, hid the suit and tie he was wearing during the raid, and told NCIS investigators that he intended to destroy other evidence so he wouldn’t be there. was arrested with. submitting said.
Hale-Cusanelli also filed a letter of support from a colleague, who claimed that he had been “vilified in the press” for being called a “white supremacist,” but that the colleague had never heard unpalatable jokes or language. But the same colleague, Sgt. John Getz told the opposite story when he spoke to NCIS investigators, court documents said. Getz made no attempt to reconcile the opposing representations.
Hale-Cusanelli was arrested on January 15. NCIS researchers interviewed 44 colleagues on Jan. 20 and 21, and 34 agreed that Hale-Cusanelli had openly expressed pro-Nazi views.