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, in response to federal courtroom data.
The Terrorgram neighborhood, which has been linked to round three dozen felony instances across the globe, together with at the very least three mass shootings, was profiled final month in stories and a documentary produced by ProPublica and FRONTLINE.
The court documents allege that Nikita Casap, a 17-year-old from Waukesha, Wisconsin, wrote a three-page manifesto calling for the assassination of Trump with a view to “foment a political revolution in the USA 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, in response to the courtroom data. Casap additionally allegedly advisable 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 essential infrastructure — and distributed them all through the Terrorgram ecosystem.
Launched in 2019, Terrorgram was a constellation of scores of Telegram channels and chat groups centered on inciting acts of white supremacist terrorism and anti-government sabotage. On the community’s peak, some Terrorgram channels drew 1000’s 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 neighborhood 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 id theft and different theft prices. He’s anticipated to be arraigned on Could 7, in response to courtroom data.
A witness instructed native investigators that Casap “was in contact with a male in Russia by way of the Telegram app and so they have been planning to overthrow the U.S. authorities and assassinate President Trump,” according to charging documents 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 bunch 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 costs.
“Do completely something you possibly can that may result in the collapse of America or any nation you reside in,” Casap allegedly wrote in his manifesto, in response to an FBI affidavit. “That is the one method we will save the White race.”
The teenager’s writings and on-line postings which are cited within the affidavit point out that he’s a believer in militant accelerationism, an idea that has change into more and more widespread with neo-Nazis and different right-wing extremists over the previous decade. Militant accelerationists intention to hurry the collapse of recent society by way of acts of spectacular violence; from the ruins of right now’s democracies, they intention to construct all-white ethno-states organized on fascist ideas.
Matthew Kriner, government 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 the USA as a way of collapsing society,” Kriner mentioned. “I feel what we’ve 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 change of concepts; nonetheless, requires violence are strictly prohibited by our Phrases of Service and are eliminated proactively in addition to in response to consumer experiences.”
A ProPublica and FRONTLINE evaluation reveals that Casap was just lately energetic 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, in response to the federal paperwork, additionally sought out info 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.”
