The army reservist accused of the Capitol revolt was a Nazi sympathizer who spoke of not liking Jews.

Former co-workers of an Army reservist accused of participating in the January 6 Capitol rebellion described him as an avowed white supremacist who made no effort to hide his dislike for Jews. It was no secret that Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked as a security contractor and had secret security clearance, was racist. When he was arrested on January 15 and accused of breaking into the Capitol, prosecutors characterized him as a “declared white supremacist” who sympathized with the Nazis. But a new lawsuit, which was first reported by the Politico, included results of an extensive investigation by the Navy Criminal Investigation Service that revealed worrying details about his views that were well known to his coworkers.

The investigators interviewed 44 of Hale-Cusanelli’s colleagues and 34 of them agreed that he had “extremist or radical views regarding the Jewish people, minorities and women”. One even said that he talked daily about how much he disliked Jews and a supervisor said that he once had to discipline him for sporting a “Hitler mustache”. A colleague recalled that Hale-Cusanelli once said “Hitler should have finished the job”.

The revelations were included as part of an effort to resist efforts by Hale-Cusanelli’s lawyers to release him on bail. Prosecutors said Hale-Cusanelli should stay behind bars because he “fueled the fantasy of participating in another Civil War”, which “makes him a danger to the community”. The danger is more acute now that he has been released from the Army Reserve and no longer has a job. If he is released while awaiting trial, he will have nowhere to go and nothing to do but look for “the adrenaline, the rush, the purpose” that he found in facing the Capitol police and breaking into the Capitol building in 6 January 2021, ”wrote US Assistant Attorney James Nelson.

The Hale-Cusanelli case attracted a lot of attention in part because it illustrates how white supremacists participated in the Capitol rebellion. It also provides a clear illustration of the challenges that arise as military leaders try to detect extremist and racist views among the military.