A Wisconsin teenager accused of murdering two relations and plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump was impressed by Terrorgram, a white supremacist community that operated on the Telegram messaging and social media platform for half a decade, based on federal courtroom data.
The Terrorgram group, which has been linked to round three dozen legal circumstances across the globe, together with at the very least three mass shootings, was profiled final month in tales and a documentary produced by ProPublica and FRONTLINE.
The courtroom paperwork allege that Nikita Casap, a 17-year-old from Waukesha, Wisconsin, wrote a three-page manifesto calling for the assassination of Trump with the intention to “foment a political revolution in america and ‘save the white race’ from ‘Jewish managed politicians.’”
In his manifesto, Casap allegedly inspired individuals to learn the writings of Juraj Krajčík, a longtime Terrogram determine who murdered two individuals in an assault on an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2022, based on the courtroom data. Casap additionally allegedly really useful two publications produced by the Terrorgram Collective, a secretive group that produced alleged hit lists, movies and written publications — together with directions for constructing bombs and sabotaging vital infrastructure — and distributed them all through the Terrorgram ecosystem.
Launched in 2019, Terrorgram was a constellation of scores of Telegram channels and discussion groups targeted on inciting acts of white supremacist terrorism and anti-government sabotage. On the community’s peak, some Terrorgram channels drew hundreds of followers. Over the previous six months, nonetheless, the community has been disrupted as authorities in Canada, the U.S. and Europe have arrested key Terrorgram influencers and group members.
However the violence hasn’t stopped.
Casap in February allegedly shot and killed his mom, Tatiana Casap, and stepfather, Donald Mayer; stole their property; and fled of their Volkswagen Atlas, Waukesha County prosecutors say. He was arrested in Kansas. Prosecutors have charged the teenager with two counts of first-degree murder, in addition to identification theft and different theft expenses. He’s anticipated to be arraigned on Might 7, based on courtroom data.
A witness informed native investigators that Casap “was in contact with a male in Russia via the Telegram app and so they had been planning to overthrow the U.S. authorities and assassinate President Trump,” based on charging paperwork within the Wisconsin case.
The newly unsealed federal courtroom filings point out that the FBI is investigating Casap in connection to the alleged assassination plot.
The bureau declined to touch upon the matter.
Final fall, federal prosecutors accused two Individuals of appearing as leaders of the Terrorgram Collective and charged them with soliciting the homicide of federal officers and a number of different terrorism-related offenses. The U.S. State Division has formally designated the Terrorgram Collective as a terrorist group, as have officers in the UK and Australia. The 2 Individuals have pleaded not responsible to the fees.
“Do completely something you may that may result in the collapse of America or any nation you reside in,” Casap allegedly wrote in his manifesto, based on an FBI affidavit. “That is the one manner we will save the White race.”
The teenager’s writings and on-line postings which can be cited within the affidavit point out that he’s a believer in militant accelerationism, an idea that has change into more and more well-liked with neo-Nazis and different right-wing extremists over the previous decade. Militant accelerationists purpose to hurry the collapse of recent society via acts of spectacular violence; from the ruins of immediately’s democracies, they purpose to construct all-white ethno-states organized on fascist rules.
Matthew Kriner, govt director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, a nonprofit suppose tank, referred to as the alleged Casap plot distinctive. “It’s the primary time we’re explicitly seeing a person tie an accelerationist act or plot with the president of america as a way of collapsing society,” Kriner mentioned. “I feel what we’ve got right here is a reasonably clear-cut case of a person who’s being groomed to take drastic terrorist motion in an accelerationist method.”
Casap’s public defender couldn’t be reached for remark.
A Telegram spokesperson mentioned, “Telegram helps the peaceable trade of concepts; nonetheless, requires violence are strictly prohibited by our Phrases of Service and are eliminated proactively in addition to in response to person studies.”
A ProPublica and FRONTLINE assessment exhibits that Casap was not too long ago lively in at the very least 5 extremist Telegram channels or discussion groups, together with a Russian-language neo-Nazi chat by which posters uploaded detailed directions for crafting explosives, poisons and improvised firearms. He was additionally a member of a chat group with greater than 4,300 members run by the Misanthropic Division, a world neo-Nazi group.
Casap, based on the federal paperwork, additionally sought out data on-line concerning the Order of 9 Angles, a cult that blends Satanic ideas and Nazi ideology and has more and more turned to Telegram to recruit and proselytize.
“It is a clear instance of how Terrorgram continues to affect homicide,” mentioned Jennefer Harper, a researcher who research on-line extremism. “Nikita was influenced on-line by an assortment of ideologies and teams that intersect with the Terrorgram ecosphere.”
