UPDATE Sept. 22, 2022: Timothy Hale-Cusanelli has been sentenced to four years in prison; more here.
*** *** ***
Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli is a violent white supremacist and a Nazi sympathizer from Colts Neck (Monmouth County), New Jersey. He is enlisted with the U.S. military and is also registered as a contractor for a Naval Weapons Station Earl. As such, he maintains secret security clearance that allows him to access a variety of munitions.
On January 6, 2021, Hale-Cusanelli participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., and entered the Capitol building itself, according to an FBI affidavit filed last week. He was later arrested, and charged with five Federal charges. This wasn't the first time Timothy had an encounter with law enforcement. In 2011, he stabbed a man and was subsequently was arrested. In March 2020, a police report was filed by a Jewish victim alleging antisemitic harassment.
Hale-Cusanelli is known to be involved with antisemitic groups such as "Jackson Strong" and "Rise Up Ocean County", both of which were removed from most social media platforms for posting hateful content. Government officials and law enforcement agents described Rise Up Ocean County as a hate group and both groups have been cited in several federal civil rights violation cases.
Last year, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal condemned Rise Up Ocean County and its leader Richard Ciullo as a hate group that pedals antisemitism. In response, Hale-Cusanelli referred to Murphy as "Crypto-Jew", citing his Jewish wife.
During a meeting on January 12, 2021, with a governmental informant, Hale-Cusanelli admitted to posting horrific antisemitic and bigoted videos on his YouTube channel. In a video posted in April 2020, he atrociously vilifies the Jewish people and references the "Boogaloo" - a slang term used by white supremacists for the second civil war they claim to be fomenting.
Hale-Cusanelli's hateful ideology and violent aspirations are detailed at length in court papers. Authorities found copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and other neo-Nazi literature in Hale-Cusanelli's apartment. The prosecutors made it clear that his interest in the books was not academic. He was planning the next civil war.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli is a perfect example of how antisemitism starts with the Jews, but never ends with the Jews. The Jew-hatred shared by him and the groups he supports spreads wide and deep into our society and we must all work together to expose and stop it before it's too late.