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Three men have pleaded guilty to trying to sabotage power grids in an attempt to promote white supremacy.
Christopher Cook, Jonathan Frost and Jackson Sawall each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They stand accused of attacking three power grids in the U.S. in order to cause civil unrest, which would be eliminated only by white supremacy and a race war.
"According to these pleas, three individuals engaged in a disturbing plot to attack our country's energy infrastructure, damage the economy, and stoke division in our society, all in the name of white supremacy," Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said in a release Wednesday. "As this case shows, federal and state law enforcement agencies are dedicated to working together to protect this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
The U.S. Department of Justice said that Cook, 20, who is from Ohio, and Frost, 24, from Texas and Indiana, met each other online in 2019. It was there that they first began creating the plan to attack a power grid. Cook reportedly asked Frost to read several books on white supremacy and neo-Nazism in order to join the plot, something that the latter agreed to. Sawall, 22, who is from Wisconsin, agreed to join the plot later in the year.
The plan was to attack three power grids in three regions. They believed that the destruction of the grids "would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest for Americans in the region," according to authorities. They also claimed that the outage "would cause war, even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression."
When they began their plan in February of 2020, Cook and Sawall were stopped by authorities as they were putting neo-Nazi graffiti across the city of Columbus, Ohio. Sawall ingested fentanyl but survived.
The FBI raided the three men's homes in August of 2020, according to local news station WTTE, but they were not formally charged until February 7.
"These defendants conspired to use violence to sow hate, create chaos, and endanger the safety of the American people," U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker said. "As this case shows, federal and state law enforcement agencies are dedicated to working together to protect this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
FBI Assistant Director Timothy Langan spoke about their "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist views."
"When individuals move from espousing particular views to planning or committing acts of violence the FBI will investigate and take action to stop their plans," he said. "We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect our communities."
Cook, Frost and Sawall each faces up to 15 years in prison.
Update 2/23/22, 5:14 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
