Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 6, 2020

LAS VEGAS (AP) A white supremacist will plead guilty to a federal weapons charge in a case alleging he planned to bomb a Las Vegas synagogue or shoot people at a fast food restaurant or a bar catering to LGBTQ customers, court records show.

Conor Climos court-appointed attorneys did not immediately respond Friday to email messages about his signed plea agreement filed Jan. 17 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

Climo, 24, is due to plead guilty Feb. 10 and will face about three years in prison, according to the agreement. He will avoid trial and have to undergo mental health treatment and electronic computer monitoring during supervised release after prison.

Climo was arrested Aug. 8 and remains in federal custody on a charge of possessing firearms, specifically destructive devices. He could have faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich declined to comment about the development in one of several recent criminal cases against members of a far-right extremist group.

Climo identified himself as a member of the Feuerkrieg Division, an offshoot of Atomwaffen, a U.S.-based neo-Nazi group that has been linked to several killings, including the 2017 shooting deaths of two men at an apartment in Tampa, Florida.

A U.S. magistrate judge who rejected Climos bid for release last August said the group encourages, and may even commit, violent attacks on people of the Jewish religion, homosexuals, African Americans and federal infrastructures.

The FBI alleged that Climo told an informant of detailed plans to attack a synagogue near his Las Vegas home and compiled a journal with sketches of attacks on a Las Vegas LGBTQ bar or a McDonalds restaurant.

Climo acknowledged talking with others online about making and using explosives, according to his plea agreement, and discussed plans for violent attacks against the Jewish organization Anti-Defamation League, a synagogue and a local bar.

Climo described the McDonalds attack as a suicide mission, and he had very specific plans about attacking one specific synagogue near his house, the magistrate judge wrote, including wanting to light an incendiary device and having others join him to shoot people as they came out.

Climo was interviewed by a local television news crew in September 2016 patrolling his neighborhood wearing battle gear and carrying an assault rifle, survival knife and extended-capacity ammunition magazines. Police said he was not arrested at that time because Nevada does not prohibit people from openly carrying firearms.

The FBI confiscated an AR-15 assault-style weapon and a bolt-action rifle from Climos home when he was arrested last year. Agents reported finding hand-drawn schematics and component parts of a destructive device, including flammable liquids, oxidizing agents and circuit boards.

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Vegas man to plead guilty in plot to bomb synagogue, bar - Associated Press

Category: Synagogue
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