Homeland Security News

An alleged member of the Oath Keepers will plead guilty on Wednesday to charges related to the January 6 insurrection, the first plea deal among the Capitol riot cases against extremist groups, a notice filed in court says.

Graydon Young, a 54-year-old from Florida who went by "GenXPatriot," is charged in a 16-person conspiracy case alleging members of the Oath Keepers plotted to carry out the January 6 insurrection.

It is the first guilty plea among any defendants in the major Capitol riot conspiracy cases and is a significant development as investigators continue to pursue leads on extremist groups that they believe planned for an armed attack to help then-President Donald Trump and stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election.

Read more: CNN

An East Longmeadow man on trial for leaving an explosive device at a Longmeadow senior facility in April 2020 was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday.

According to the Department of Justice, 37-year-old John Rathbun was convicted after a week-long trial, on one count of attempting to transport or receive explosive devices in interstate or foreign commerce with the knowledge or intent that the device will be used to kill, injure, or intimidate any individual or unlawfully to damage or destroy any building, vehicle or other real or personal property.

The jury also convicted him on one count of attempting to maliciously damage or destroy, by means of fire or an explosive, any building, vehicle, or other real or personal property used in interstate or foreign commerce.

Read more: WWLP (Springfield, MA)

Newly unveiled efforts to combat a growing domestic terrorism threat in the United States will have to find a way to overcome a major obstacle: carefully crafted campaigns by foreign countries and terrorist groups to incite violence.

The warning, from a senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, comes just a day after U.S. President Joe Biden issued his long-awaited National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, described by his administration as the first of its kind.

The Biden administration has downplayed direct links between violent extremists in the U.S. and those outside the country; one senior official noted that intelligence agencies “did not find a robust nexus between domestic terrorism and foreign actors.” Other officials caution, however, that is because the relationship does not follow a standard command-and-control model.

Read more: Voice of America

A new federal intelligence report warns that adherents of QAnon, the conspiracy theory embraced by some in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, could target Democrats and other political opponents for more violence as the movement's false prophecies increasingly fail to come true.

Many QAnon followers believe former President Donald Trump was fighting enemies within the so-called deep state to expose a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring. Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden disillusioned some believers in “The Storm,” a supposed reckoning in which Trump’s enemies would be tried and executed. Some adherents have now pivoted into believing that Trump is the “shadow president” or that Biden's victory was a sham.

The report was compiled by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and released Monday by Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat. It predicts that while some QAnon adherents will pull back, others “likely will begin to believe they can no longer ‘trust the plan’ referenced in QAnon posts and that they have an obligation to change from serving as ‘digital soldiers’ towards engaging in real world violence.”

Read more: US News & World Report

The White House on Tuesday announced a national effort for countering domestic extremism, which includes moves the Defense Department put into action earlier this year.

Among them are initiatives to better screen potential recruits, monitor extremist activity while in uniform and better educate new veterans about the possibility of being targeted for recruitment into an extremist group. The White House strategy would like to see those measures extended to law enforcement, according to a Tuesday release.

“While domestic law enforcement agencies take the lead, the Department of Defense will do our part to support this important strategy,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “That includes maintaining the Department’s robust relationship with federal law enforcement as well as refining our policies to better address this issue within the Department.”

The strategy builds off of a study released to Congress in March, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.

Read more: Military Times