The United States has a clear and present danger facing us: white supremacists are on the attack and they are on a murderous rampage that must be stopped. A plot by two D.C.-area brothers to commit mass murder unraveled when 23-year-old Edward William Clark committed suicide on the day of the Pittsburgh shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. James Clark, Edward’s brother, had been in contact with Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers on the website Gab, a haven for white supremacists after other hate sites have been shut down. Both men were active on the site and James Clark had been in contact not only with Robert Bowers, but with James Fields, the man who drove his vehicle into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer. From The Daily Beast:
Clark, a member of white supremacist circles who was photographed with alleged Charlottesville “Unite the Right” murder suspect James Alex Fields in 2017 and posted on alt-right social network Gab, shot himself with a pistol shortly after the attack.
Edward Clark may have committed suicide rather than carry out a planned attack.
But Clark had much more ammunition on him than was necessary, leading Clark’s relatives to believe he had originally intended to commit violence that same day against other people.
In fact, both Clark brothers attended the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville and were reportedly planning a large-scale attack in the hopes of starting a race war. The Clark brothers were increasingly visible at alt-right white supremacist events. YouTube user OnePeoplesProjecttv (h/t Huffington Post) interviewed both Clark brothers at an event outside the White House in 2017. The event was organized by White Supremacist Richard Spencer, who had been famously punched in the face at a similar event only a few months prior. Jeffrey Clark identified himself as a Nazi and argued with the cameraman.
According to the Huffington Post, Jeffrey Clark was friends with Pittsburgh mass murderer Robert Bowers on Gab.
In April 2017, when someone asked Clark at a White House rally organized by “alt-right” coiner Richard Spencer whether he considered himself a fascist, he said no ― he considered himself a Nazi. Antifa activists photographed him at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. He has posed for pictures in front of Nazi symbols and holding Nazi memorabilia.
On Gab, the favored social network of racists and anti-Semites, Clark had the username @PureWhitEvil and called himself “DC Bowl Gang,” a reference to Dylann Roof, the bowl-cut racist who murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
HuffPo reports James Clark threatened one of their reporters in April and they reported him to the police. The brothers also worked with right-wing conspiracy peddler Jack Posobiec.
Laura Sennett, an anti-fascist researcher who works with One People’s Project, spoke with Jeffrey Clark a few weeks after he and his brother were spotted in Bloomingdale with Posobiec, who by then had been fired from Rebel under mysterious circumstances after plagiarizing Jason Kessler, the white nationalist who organized the Unite the Right rally.
“[Clark] told me that Jack Posobiec hired him and his brother to follow him with a camera to take video of his investigation of Seth Rich,” Sennett told HuffPost. “Not sure if it was a documentary or a news story, but [Posobiec] was doing some kind of reporting for Rebel Media. I asked him if Posobiec was aware of his Nazi beliefs. He told me that Posobiec absolutely was and had told Jeff that he was sympathetic to those beliefs.”
When the FBI arrested James Clark, they found a weapons cache and kits to fully automate AR-15s. From NBC News 4:
In their court filings, federal agents said they obtained four boxes of gun parts from Clark.
“Agents recognized several items in the boxes as parts used to modify AR-15 assault rifles,” the affidavit said.
Agents said they also recovered AR-15 rifle conversion kits and four high-capacity AR-15 magazines capable of holding up to 30 rounds of ammunition, according to the affidavit.
Terrifying. A converted AR-15 is what Stephen Paddock used to murder 58 people and injure 851 people in a matter of minutes in Las Vegas in 2017. According to The Washington Post, the brothers had battle gear and were eager to start a race war.
Authorities said they found two muzzleloading pistols, in Jeffrey Clark’s bedroom and in the basement of the house. In Edward Clark’s room, the court documents said, they found two ballistic vests, two ballistic helmets and two gas masks. FBI agents said in court that shotgun shells were also found in Jeffrey Clark’s bedroom, the filings said.
Court papers said Clark’s relatives told authorities that Clark admired Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and killer Charles Manson and that relatives said “Jeffrey and Edward Clark believed there would be a race revolution and they wanted to expedite it.”
Jeffrey Clark faces charges of several charges and faces his first hearing on Friday.
Clark was charged with illegally possessing a firearm while using or addicted to a controlled substance and with possession of a high-speed magazine. During his interview with federal agents, he told them he used marijuana nearly every day.
This country is facing a serious threat of right-wing terrorists: white supremacists who operate in dark corners of the internet and who are feeling emboldened by one another and the white supremacists in the White House.