It’s pretty clear that Michigan neo-Nazi Justen Watkins was not too concerned about being arrested in December 2019 for harassing a family at their home. As soon as he was out on bond, he not only continued participating in message boards for the fascist organization The Base and blogging about them, he also went right back to organizing a training camp for his terrorist cell—and broke into a vacant Department of Corrections facility to scope it out as a possible paramilitary training site.
So this week, Watkins, 25, of Bad Axe, and his two cohorts in the break-in—Thomas Denton, 32, and Tristan Webb, 19, both of Huron County—were convicted of multiple felony counts related to the plot to build a “hate camp” that would train neo-Nazi warriors for a coming race war. Watkins, the group’s self-declared leader, awaits sentencing, but could face up to 20 years in prison.
Watkins and his cohort in the 2019 case, 35-year-old Alfred Gorman of Taylor, were arrested in October 2020 and charged with harassment and gang membership. But when Watkins was released on bond, he promptly began working to build his Base-affiliated terrorist cell.
He moved to the northern end of the Michigan “Thumb” area on Lake Huron and moved in with a 19-year-old neo-Nazi named Tristan Webb, who was occupying a rural farmhouse owned by his father. After Watkins moved in, along with Denton, Webb’s mother moved out, leaving the place to the young men. Webb later told the Huron Daily Tribune that he and Watkins were trying to build “a community” at the house. Prosecutors say they were engaging in paramilitary training at the house.
They also engaged in harassing liberal protesters. When local Black Lives Matter organizers assembled a peaceful protest, inspired by the murder of George Floyd, against police brutality in Bad Axe on June 5, 2020, the trio turned out in the town’s downtown area armed with semiautomatics, wearing body armor, and their faces covered with neo-Nazi skull masks.
As part of their plans to create a proper training center, the three men also scoped out possible facilities—including two vacant Michigan Department of Corrections properties in Caro. They broke into the buildings—the Camp Tuscola annex and Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program buildings, 50 miles distant from their farmhouse—in October 2020 and scouted them out as “hate camp” training grounds. They also stole state-issued clothing from one of the jails. They were caught and charged with larceny in a building, gang membership, felony possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil war.
Watkins pleaded guilty to gang membership in Washtenaw County related to intimidating the Dexter family, and pleaded guilty in Tuscola County to conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder and felony firearms. He awaits sentencing in both counties.
Webb pleaded no contest in Tuscola County to gang membership, conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder, and felony firearms possession. He is awaiting sentencing in Tuscola County Circuit Court.
Denton pleaded no contest in Tuscola County to felony firearms and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder. He was sentenced to spend nine months to four years in prison.
Attorney General Dana Nessel noted that the men’s convictions set an important legal precedent—which is significant for Michigan law-enforcement officials still reeling from the April acquittals of four militiamen who plotted to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“Securing these convictions on the conspiracy to train for civil disorder holds significance for many reasons,” Nessel said in a statement. “They reiterate this office’s commitment to protecting Michigan residents, they create a historic precedent in our state’s court system, and they convey the real danger domestic terrorism poses here and around the country. I appreciate the thorough work done by our team and partner agencies to secure these convictions. Let them send the message that in Michigan, we will not hesitate to prosecute those who commit crimes in the name of overthrowing our government or perpetuating racist ideologies.”
The December 2019 incident, as The Informant’s Nick Martin reported at the time, was chilling in its implications: The two men showed up late at night to the Dexter home of a family with a newborn infant. The men were dressed in black, with one wearing a skull mask. They took photos and video of the family’s home from the porch and yard, intent on making the family aware of their presence. They then posted some of the photos on Telegram with the message: “The Base sends greetings to Daniel Harper of the Antifa podcast ‘I Don’t Speak German.’”
In fact, the home had recently been sold to the family by a man named Daniel Harper, but he was not the person the fascist terrorists were seeking. That Daniel Harper, who lives in Michigan but not anywhere near Dexter, had been alerting law enforcement for months that a group of online neo-Nazis were wrongly targeting the house, believing it belonged to him. After the December incident, state and federal investigators became involved.
Watkins had previously proclaimed himself the leader of The Base after the online-organized accelerationist terror group’s founder and nominal leader, Rinaldo Nazzarro, aka “Norman Spear,” had been exposed as an operative associated with Russian intelligence living in Russia. Gorman was arrested in his hometown of Taylor.
The two men were charged with multiple felonies: gang membership (which carries a potential 20-year sentence), unlawful posting of a message, and using computers to commit a crime. Gorman pleaded guilty in Washtenaw County Jan. 10 to one felony count of gang membership and was sentenced to four years of probation and to spend one year working alongside a University of Michigan professor of ethnic studies.
Since its origins in the world of online white nationalist organizing in 2018, The Base has been openly committed to acts of terrorist violence for the purpose of accelerating the collapse of modern society, which they believe needs to be displaced by global white supremacist rule. And indeed, The Base has grown into a worldwide phenomenon.
According to the FBI, The Base’s paramilitary operations—including a training camp in northeastern Washington—are part of a declared war against minority communities within the United States and abroad. Unlike such white nationalist groups as Patriot Front or Identity Evropa, the group’s focus is not on promulgating propaganda. Rather, its stated purpose is to bring together highly skilled operatives under the umbrella of their white supremacist ideology and train them for acts of violence.
It already has been associated with several high-profile domestic-terrorism cases. In January, three members of The Base were arrested as they were planning to engage in lethal violence at anti-gun control protests in Virginia, including a Canadian reservist who had been a fugitive in the U.S. Less than two weeks later, three members of The Base were arrested in Georgia for conspiring to kill members of an antifascist group.