The New Generation: Patriot Front, Atomwaffen and the Courts, 2011 to 2026

This lesson follows the module from a place, the Hayden Lake compound, to a method. The cases below involve a small number of specific groups and defendants, some of whom organized online and traveled to Idaho from other states, and they show what the courts did about each.¹ Each group is judged here by its own stated beliefs and documented acts. Nothing in this lesson describes Christian conservatives, the American Redoubt or Idaho's conservative political community: the values and worldview of the extremist and nationalist movements covered in this module are opposed to those of Christian conservatives, and the module does not group them together.

How this module weighs advocacy sources

Group counts, hate-group lists and incident audits come from advocacy organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the ACLU, and from progressive writing about race and hate. This module treats all of them as advocacy sources. A finding from one of them is attributed to it by name, is not used as the only proof of a claim, and is checked against court records, government documents, contemporaneous news reports, the subjects' own publications and statements, and sources from other points of view. Each of these organizations has been criticized, including by people who agree with its goals, for how it classifies groups and counts incidents, and each has faced disputes about its own conduct; where the module relies on a figure, the figure is labeled as that organization's own count.

The American Redoubt is not an extremist movement

The American Redoubt is a 2011 proposal, published by author James Wesley Rawles, that encourages like-minded people who value self-reliance, preparedness and traditional values to relocate to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and parts of Washington and Oregon; NPR describes it as a proposed haven for conservative Christians. It is a migration and preparedness idea. It is a different thing from Christian conservatism, which is a broad religious and political tradition with millions of adherents, most of whom have no connection to the Redoubt. Neither is a hate group, and none of the court cases, federal charges or government documents used in this module involves either one. Both hold values and a worldview opposed to those of white supremacists, white separatists, Nazis and nationalist street groups, and the module keeps each apart from those movements and from each other.

NPR's 2022 report notes that locals say many new far-right arrivals moved to the region after the 2011 "American Redoubt" concept.² That is a statement by residents, and the report's label, "far-right," is the reporter's and the residents' word. The sources gathered here do not count arrivals, and they do not show that the Redoubt's supporters, or Christian conservatives who live in the region, are extremists. The Redoubt and Christian conservatism are separate subjects, and a reporter should not treat one as a stand-in for the other. A reporter should not repeat the residents' claim as if it linked the Redoubt to any group in this lesson.

The Associated Press reported in 2019 that the SPLC had counted at least nine "hate groups" in the Spokane and northern Idaho region in 2018, naming Identity Evropa, Proud Boys, ACT for America and America's Promise Ministries.¹ That is the SPLC's list and the SPLC's classification, and the four groups on it have little in common. Identity Evropa was a white nationalist group. America's Promise Ministries is described by the SPLC as a Christian Identity ministry, a theology that mainstream Christian churches and Christian conservatives reject (lesson 1). ACT for America is a national-security advocacy group that rejects the SPLC's label. The Proud Boys describe themselves as a fraternal group of "Western chauvinists" and deny that they are white supremacists, and the SPLC, which lists them, disagrees; the documented acts are the better guide: in May 2023 a federal jury in Washington, D.C. convicted the group's national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and others of seditious conspiracy for the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and Tarrio, sentenced to 22 years, was pardoned by President Trump in January 2025. Whether the label "hate group" fits any of these groups is disputed. Report the group's own description, the SPLC's classification attributed to the SPLC, and the court record, and let readers see the difference. The section "The Proud Boys label: three separate records" below lays the three out side by side.

The same AP report describes an April 2019 appearance at a Kootenai County Republican meeting by a woman seeking help to bring her boyfriend, an Austrian activist, to the United States, and says the county Republican Central Committee passed a resolution urging the federal government to readmit him. The report says the chairman blamed the press for the controversy.¹ This lesson reports the episode as a documented political event, not as evidence of anyone's beliefs; the module does not name the individuals in it beyond what the AP report supports. A resolution by one county committee reflects the votes of the people on it. It does not describe the beliefs of Republicans, conservatives or Christians in Kootenai County, who held a range of views on it.

June 11, 2022: Coeur d'Alene

On June 11, 2022, police in Coeur d'Alene arrested 31 members of Patriot Front, including the group's founder, after a tip about men boarding a U-Haul in military formation. NBC News reports the arrestees came from at least 11 states; another account says only two were Idaho residents.³⁴ They were charged with misdemeanor conspiracy to riot at a Pride event. Police found riot gear, a smoke grenade, shin guards and shields in the van, and documents reportedly described a plan to form a column outside City Park and proceed "until barriers to approach are met."³ InvestigateWest reporter Daniel Walters (whose February 2024 account East Idaho News republished) reports police said the leader had a note outlining a plan to create a "confrontational dynamic."⁵

Mayor Jim Hammond said, "We're not going back to the days of the Aryan Nations,"² and on NPR's broadcast of the news conference he continued, "We are past that."⁴² The Idaho Statesman's syndicated report carries the same words.⁴ NBC News describes Patriot Front as a "white nationalist hate group." The sources used here do not describe the group as Nazi, and under the module's labeling rules (lesson 1) it is not called one.

The same weekend: the 'Gun d'Alene' rally

The Panhandle Patriots Riding Club scheduled a "Gun d'Alene" rally to coincide with the event; the flyer read, "If they want to have a war, let it begin here," according to NPR, and posts reviewed by the AP included calls for warfare, two of which promoted sniper attacks on adults attending Pride.²⁴ An anti-LGBTQ protester carried a semi-automatic rifle at the event. The organizers of the sixth annual Pride in the Park said it drew the largest turnout in its history.² Those are reports of speech and conduct, and they are separate from the Patriot Front arrests.

What the courts did

The July 2023 convictions

A Kootenai County jury, after about an hour of deliberation, convicted five men of conspiracy to riot: Forrest Rankin, Devin Center, Derek Smith, James Johnson and Robert Whitted. Conspiracy to riot carries up to one year in jail, a $5,000 fine and up to two years of probation.³ On July 21, 2023, Judge James Stow sentenced the five to five days in jail (two already served), a $1,000 fine less a $300 bond and one year of unsupervised probation, with a ban on being within two miles of Coeur d'Alene city parks. Judgment was withheld.⁶ Dr. Sarah Lynch, executive director of the North Idaho Pride Alliance, said: "We've held great trust in our justice system."⁶

The cases that did not reach a verdict

Daniel Walters of InvestigateWest wrote the February 2024 account (published February 8 and republished by the Idaho Capital Sun, under a headline calling Rousseau "Patriot Front's white nationalist leader," and by East Idaho News).⁵¹¹ It reports that the case against Thomas Rousseau, the group's leader, never reached trial. Magistrate Judge John Cafferty dismissed it on November 3, 2023, after about a year and a half of delays, lost evidence and prosecutors' failure to follow court orders. He said, "This is an important case. It should not be dismissed lightly."⁵ A dismissal ends a case without a verdict. It is not an acquittal, and the court did not decide whether Rousseau did what police alleged.

The central evidence problem, according to the account: police gave 37 seized devices to the FBI before a federal warrant was signed, the FBI kept the phones, and prosecutors acknowledged on August 2, 2023 that they could not get them back. The defense said one phone might contain a video of leaders urging nonviolence. Rousseau, who had represented himself for about six months, was assigned private attorney Kinzo Mihara in December 2022. The prosecutors' position was that judges and defense attorneys had turned the case into a forum for fishing expeditions.⁵

The same account reports the outcomes for the others: one defendant's case was dismissed in August 2023 by Judge Destry Randles, who accused prosecutors of mishandling evidence; seven people in all were convicted of conspiracy to riot, drew a few days in jail, one to two years of probation, a $1,000 fine and a ban from the area around the park (attorney Kinzo Mihara represents four of the seven on appeal); twenty took plea deals for parading without a permit and paid a fine; four, including the videographer, had bench warrants out; one defendant was separately convicted in an unrelated matter; and the city prosecutors were appealing two dismissed cases.⁵ The sources read do not say how the two convictions beyond the five jury verdicts came about, and they do not report the outcome of the four appeals of the seven convictions.

The appeal: the dismissal stands

The State appealed the Rousseau dismissal; the notice was filed on November 20 or 21, 2023 (the sources differ on the day).⁴⁰ The Kootenai County District Court's memorandum decision in State v. Rousseau, case CR28-22-8737, is posted by the county under a file name dated July 10, 2024. For this update an excerpt of it was read, and it affirms the dismissal.¹² The excerpt does not show the appellate judge's name.

What the excerpt says, in summary: the magistrate had tried a spoliation instruction and continuances first and concluded that no lesser sanction would suffice. The magistrate relied on Idaho Criminal Rules 16, 17 and 48(a)(2). The appellate court noted that the State's brief ran past 50 pages and treated some of its arguments as waived. The decision names Ryan Hunter for the State and Kinzo Mihara, a conflict public defender, for Rousseau, and it refers to an earlier evidence-preservation order by Judge Ross Pittman. This is a neutral court record, and only part of it was read.

The affirmation means the State lost its appeal. It is not a finding of innocence, and it is not a ruling that the plan police described did not exist. It is a ruling that dismissing the case for the State's discovery and evidence-preservation failures was within the court's authority.

Arrested, pleaded, dismissed, convicted: keeping outcomes apart

The word "Patriot Front" is attached to all 31 people in much coverage. The records separate them into very different outcomes. The table sets out each outcome, what it means and what the sources report. The counts are as reported on the dates shown, and they are not always from the same moment in the cases.

Outcome	What it means	Count as reported	Source and date
Arrested	Held after the June 11, 2022 stop. An arrest is an accusation, not a finding.	31	Police statements and NBC News, June 2022 and July 2023
Convicted of conspiracy to riot (misdemeanor)	A conviction. Five by one jury in July 2023 (named above); the sources read do not say how the other two came about.	7 (InvestigateWest, Feb. 2024); 7 (KREM, Nov. 2023)	NBC and KXLY for the five; Walters and KREM for the totals
Pleaded to parading without a permit	A plea to a lesser charge, with a fine. Not a conviction of conspiracy to riot.	20 (InvestigateWest, Feb. 2024); 15 (KREM, Nov. 2023)	The difference is probably timing, since cases were still being resolved; the dockets would settle it
Dismissed	The case ended without a verdict. Rousseau's was dismissed on November 3, 2023 and affirmed on appeal in July 2024; Jessop's was dismissed in August 2023 by Judge Destry Randles.	2 (InvestigateWest, Feb. 2024); 1 (KREM, Nov. 2023)	Walters; KREM; the District Court decision
Acquitted	A jury or judge finds the defendant not guilty.	None reported in the sources read	Every trial verdict reported was a conviction
Bench warrant outstanding	The person did not appear. A warrant is not a conviction.	4, including the videographer	Walters, Feb. 2024

KREM's November 2023 story, "Patriot Front charges dropped," gives the earlier counts.³⁹ The Kootenai County docket is the authority; the Idaho court portal could not be searched by name for this update.

What this shows, and what it does not

It shows that the state's response was uneven: a conviction at trial and an easy plea deal for most, and dismissals for the group's leader and one other, tied to evidence-handling problems. It does not show what the defendants believed or intended beyond what the jury found. Both sides' statements are in the record: the police and prosecutors said the group had a plan to riot, and the defense said the evidence that might show nonviolent instructions was lost. A reader should hold both.

The federal case: Iron March, Atomwaffen imagery and the power grid

A U.S. Attorney's press release from the Eastern District of North Carolina, posted by the District of Idaho, describes the last of five defendants charged in connection with a plan to attack the power grid. Jordan Duncan, 29, described in that release as of Boise, a former Marine assigned to Camp Lejeune, pleaded guilty on June 24, 2024 in Wilmington, North Carolina, to aiding and abetting the manufacture of a firearm (maximum 10 years). Co-defendants Paul James Kryscuk, 38, pleaded guilty on February 15, 2022 to conspiracy to destroy an energy facility (maximum 20 years); Liam Collins, 25, on October 24, 2023 to aiding and abetting the interstate transport of unregistered firearms; Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, on March 8, 2023 and Joseph Maurino, 25, on April 11, 2023 to conspiracy to manufacture firearms and ship them interstate (maximum 5 years each). All five were awaiting sentencing at the time of that June 2024 release; they have since been sentenced (next section).⁷ The government's October 2024 sentencing release lists Duncan as of Bailey, North Carolina, so his residence is given differently in the two releases.

The release says the group researched a previous attack by an unknown group that used assault-style rifles to try to explode a power substation. In October 2020, investigators found a handwritten list of about a dozen intersections and places in Idaho and nearby states, several containing transformers or substations. It says Kryscuk manufactured firearms, Collins allegedly stole military gear and had it delivered to the others, and Duncan gathered reference material on firearms, explosives and nerve toxins. Training included live-fire exercises in the desert near Boise.⁷

On ideology, the release says the previously filed charges allege that Collins and Kryscuk were members of the "Iron March" forum, which the release describes as a gathering point for young neo-Nazis, and posted there until it closed in late 2017. They later moved to an encrypted messaging app and recruited the others. A propaganda video shows participants in Atomwaffen masks giving a "Heil Hitler" salute beneath a black sun, ending with the phrase "Come home white man."⁷ This is the clearest case in the module where the label "neo-Nazi" is supported by a federal document and by the group's own symbols. The investigators included the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI, the Boise Police Department, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations and the ATF.⁷

The sentences

The Department of Justice announced the sentences in two steps, in July and October 2024.³⁰ Pleas and sentences are the court record here. The charges below are the ones each man pleaded to, which are narrower than the plot the government described.

Defendant	Pleaded to (date)	Sentence	Announced
Paul James Kryscuk, of Boise	Conspiracy to destroy an energy facility (Feb. 15, 2022)	6 years 6 months (78 months)	July 25, 2024
Liam Collins	Aiding and abetting interstate transport of unregistered firearms (Oct. 24, 2023)	10 years (120 months)	July 25, 2024
Justin Wade Hermanson	Conspiracy to manufacture firearms and ship them interstate (Mar. 8, 2023)	1 year 9 months	July 25, 2024
Joseph Maurino	Conspiracy to manufacture firearms and ship them interstate (Apr. 11, 2023)	1 year 9 months	October 2024
Jordan Duncan	Aiding and abetting manufacture of a firearm (June 24, 2024)	7 years	October 28, 2024

The DOJ announcements describe Collins as a Rhode Island native who relocated to Idaho. Duncan was a former Marine. Nothing in them connects any of the five to the Redoubt, to Christian conservatives or to the Patriot Front defendants.

Hate crime and incident numbers

• Idaho State Police: 68 hate crimes reported in 2024, a 21 percent increase from 2023 (roughly 56); racial bias was the motive in 42 percent; most were reported in Boise. Incidents must be verified by ISP before entering the annual tally.⁸
• ADL: 51 anti-Jewish incidents recorded in Idaho over a six-month span, according to the KIFI report; the ADL reported white-supremacist propaganda in nearly every sizable Idaho city over the previous year.⁹ These are the ADL's own counts as relayed by a local station; the ADL is an advocacy organization and its audit methods are its own. Treat the figures as the ADL's claim until checked against police reports or court records.
• 2025: The Idaho State Police report Crime in Idaho 2025, released July 29, 2026, counts 52 hate crimes, 23.53 percent fewer than the 68 in 2024.³⁵³⁶ The report breaks the 52 down by motive (below). A JNS headline from July 30, 2026 reported the same decline as 24 percent and noted that anti-Jewish incidents were 29 percent of the religion-based ones; the state report agrees (2 of 7).¹⁰
• Limits: Counts depend on reporting and on what an agency verifies. Neither number measures how many people hold an ideology. Boise State Public Radio reports that extremism leading to hate crimes now mostly occurs online, in its account of remarks by Wassmuth Center director Christina Bruce-Bennion.⁸

A reported example of the online turn: a month or so after the Gaza war began, according to the KIFI report, white supremacists hijacked public comment on a Sandpoint City Council Zoom meeting; one speaker called for "Jewish supremacy" and another read from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. A councilor cut them off, and the ADL linked a similar disruption in Jackson, Wyoming to the Goyim Defense League.⁹

The Idaho State Police 2025 report

Read the chart for what it is. A fall from 68 to 52 does not show that bias fell by that share, because the count depends on what residents report and what agencies verify. It also does not rank the motives against the population at risk. The state report is a government document and is the better source than a headline.

Groups that describe themselves differently

NPR reports that the Panhandle Patriots Riding Club organized the "Gun d'Alene" event. The Idaho Statesman, in a McClatchy series carried by Yahoo News, reports that the club's leader was in Washington for the January 6 Capitol riot. The same series reports a research center's claim that Idaho had the highest per-capita membership in the People's Rights Network (more than 5,000 members, according to the network itself), that 24 Idaho legislators had joined far-right Facebook groups, and that six Idaho residents faced federal charges in the January 6 riot.⁴ These are claims by research groups and by the network, and they should be attributed. None of them is evidence that a given person is a white supremacist, a separatist or a Nazi; People's Rights, for example, is described in that report as an organization founded by Ammon Bundy that held 2020 protests outside the home of a Central District Health board member; the report does not describe it as racist. Joining a Facebook group is not evidence of belief either, and "far-right" is the report's label, not a finding. People who hold conservative Christian, constitutional or anti-government views are not the same as the Patriot Front, Atomwaffen or Iron March defendants, and the sources do not say they are.

The Proud Boys label: three separate records

The Proud Boys come into this lesson through the SPLC's 2018 count of groups in the Spokane and North Idaho region and through a July 2021 parade in Buhl. The label "white supremacist" or "hate group" is disputed, and the sources keep three different kinds of record that should not be blended. No source read for this lesson says that any person named in this lesson belongs to the Proud Boys.

Record	What it says	Stance and source
1. The group's own description	A fraternal group of "Western chauvinists" that denies it is a white supremacist group. The group's own statement was not opened for this lesson. The nearest first hand source is former chairman Enrique Tarrio, who told WPTV on January 22, 2025, when asked about remorse, "Absolutely not."	Self-description, relayed by the press and by WPTV.33
2. The SPLC classification	The SPLC lists the Proud Boys as a hate group. The Associated Press reported in 2019 that the SPLC counted nine "hate groups" in the Spokane and North Idaho region in 2018, with the Proud Boys among them.	Advocacy organization; the classification is the SPLC's, and the group rejects it.1
3. The court record	On May 4, 2023 a federal jury in Washington, D.C. convicted four leaders, Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, of seditious conspiracy for the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol; a fifth man, Dominic Pezzola, was convicted of other charges. Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Nordean to 18 years and Pezzola to 10. Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years on September 5, 2023. Tarrio's lawyers argued he did not direct anyone to storm the Capitol. President Trump granted clemency to the January 6 defendants in January 2025; WPTV calls Tarrio's a pardon.	Primary (Department of Justice) and secondary (NPR, WPTV).3132 The clemency papers were not read; the form of Tarrio's clemency should be checked there.

The court record concerns the national leaders and the January 6 events. It does not describe any Idaho chapter, and it does not decide whether the group is a hate group. The Idaho events in the sources are two. In July 2021 a group of Proud Boys marched in the Sagebrush Days parade in Buhl, in south-central Idaho, and the Associated Press reported that the local chamber of commerce reviewed how it approves parade entries.³⁴ In January 2021 KIVI reported that Boise police removed a banner from an I-84 overpass that Patriot Front, a different group, had posted about on social media.³⁷ Reporters should keep those two groups apart.

In their own words and in the record

This section collects what the people in the story said and what the records show they did. Each item is labeled by who wrote it and where it sits: a statement by police or prosecutors is an official account, a statement by a defendant is a self-account, and a news story is a second hand report. Quotes are short and exact; the rest is summary. Charges are accusations, citations are not convictions, and a person who attended an event is not thereby a member of any group.

The arrests, as police and prosecutors described them

Chief Lee White, Coeur d'Alene Police (official statements, ABC News, June 12, 2022). At the press conference after the arrests White said the group "came to riot downtown" and described the paperwork found as "similar to an operations plan."¹⁴ Threats against the police (reported by Yahoo News, June 13, 2022). White said the department received about 150 voicemails, about half of them menacing, some from as far away as Norway, and he denied that officers had infiltrated the group.¹⁵ That is the chief's account; the voicemails themselves were not published.

What the records show about earlier warnings (reported by the Bonner County Daily Bee, June 30, 2022). Kaye Thornbrugh of Hagadone Media reported on roughly 1,200 pages of records associated with the group Property of the People. They show Patriot Front stickers at North Idaho College and in three North Idaho cities in summer 2021, then-Mayor Steve Widmyer saying in August 2021 "We need to catch these people," and Post Falls police telling the FBI the area was "papered" with posters. The records, as the reporter summarized them, do not show that police knew the June 2022 riot plan beforehand.¹⁷

The state's own accounts, second hand. The Spokesman-Review reported local reaction on June 12, 2022, and the Idaho Capital Sun reported on June 13 statements from Gov. Brad Little, Sen. Mike Crapo, Sen. Melissa Wintrow (D-Boise) and the Idaho Democratic Party, while noting that several other officials (Lt. Gov. McGeachin, Attorney General Wasden, Sen. Risch, Reps. Simpson and Fulcher and legislative leaders) had not yet commented as of that Monday morning. "Had not yet commented" is not "declined to comment."¹⁶ The sources read found no Idaho bill passed in direct response to the arrests.

What the arrested men and their side said

Thomas Rousseau (self-account recorded in police documents; KTVB, June 2022). According to the probable-cause documents, Rousseau told police he came "to peacefully exercise his First Amendment rights." Another detainee said the group goes where it is needed.¹³ These are statements inside an adverse record, reported by a television station that read the court filing.

Rousseau's denial, unconfirmed. A Wikipedia entry on Rousseau quotes him in a 2024 Grand Forks Herald story as describing "lawful political activism" and denying the group is white supremacist. The Herald story was not opened for this lesson, so the denial is recorded here only as unconfirmed.

The defense case (second hand, InvestigateWest, February 2024). Defense attorney Kinzo Mihara called the seizure of phones before a warrant "ludicrous," and a forensic expert called the recovered data "wildly incomplete." The defense said a lost phone might have held a video of leaders urging nonviolence.¹¹

The Panhandle Patriots (second hand, NPR and Boise State Public Radio, 2022). NPR names Mike "Viper" Birdsong as the organizer of the "Gun d'Alene" event. A Boise State Public Radio report by Heath Druzin quotes Jeff White, described there as the club's "sergeant at arms," speaking at an April 2022 event organized by state Rep. Heather Scott: "Good people need to stand up."⁴¹ The sources read show no charge against either man. The club is a different group from Patriot Front and the sources do not link them.⁴

Judges and lawyers on the record

Judge Destry Randles (as reported by InvestigateWest). In August 2023 Randles dismissed Richard Jessop's case. He said that in ten years on the bench he had seen nothing that "approaches this level of failure."¹¹ Magistrate Judge John Cafferty dismissed Rousseau's case on November 3, 2023 (above). The prosecutors' position, per Walters, was that judges and defense attorneys had turned the case into a forum for fishing expeditions. The city prosecutors named were Wes Somerton, who was retiring in April 2024, and Ryan Hunter, in a four-attorney office. The public defender's office could take one defendant, and private lawyers were paid $150 an hour. Walters also quotes Kris Goldsmith, identified as head of an anti-fascist research organization, saying local prosecutors should not have handled the case, and the SPLC's Jeff Tischauser saying flyer distribution in Texas fell 30 percent; both are commentary, not findings.

The District Court on appeal (neutral court record, July 2024). See "The appeal: the dismissal stands." The excerpt shows a court that checked each step the magistrate took.¹²

Local officials and neighbors

Sheriff Bob Norris (reported by KREM, April 2022). Before the arrests the sheriff was criticized for appearing at a Kootenai County rally whose speakers, as the Idaho Statesman and NPR describe them, included David Reilly and Vincent James. Norris said he did not share the speakers' "extremist" views and pointed out that a Black rapper also performed. The report does not show his beliefs, and this lesson does not infer them.¹⁸

Tony Stewart, Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations (counter-voice). Stewart, described by KXLY as having opposed hate groups locally for about 40 years, was the Task Force's spokesman on the 2009 flyers, on the 2012 Winkler candidacy and on the 2022 arrests. He is an adverse voice toward the groups, and a reliable record of what the local human rights community said at each date.

Mike Satz, Idaho 97 Project. Satz, the project's executive director, was quoted in the reaction coverage saying that "Idaho's leaders are not doing enough." It is his opinion, and the project is an advocacy group.

The 2009 to 2012 successor factions, in their own words

Jerald O'Brien (Spokesman-Review, April 18, 2009; adverse stance of the paper, his own words). O'Brien, who claimed to lead Aryan Nations, said Barack Obama's election was the greatest recruiting tool the movement had and that the group had "several handfuls" of members. The paper described flyers left on lawns in plastic bags weighted with rocks.¹⁹ Coeur d'Alene police Sgt. Christie Wood said the leaflets were protected speech and that police would not investigate. By 2016 the SPLC's Bill Morlin wrote that O'Brien had "vanished."²⁵

Paul Mullet (Spokesman-Review, August 10, 2009). After a Saturday, August 8, 2009 flyer distribution, police cited three men; citations are not convictions. Mullet said, "We're going to recruit and we're going to recruit hard." He said he had moved to North Idaho to help O'Brien, then broke with him and moved his headquarters to Athol. One of the men cited told police he was "exercising his freedom of speech rights." A Task Force spokesman, Tony Stewart, said hate speech is legal and hate crimes are not.²⁰

Shaun Winkler (KNKX, KREM and SPLC, 2012). Winkler told KNKX it was "kind of our job to carry on the legacy" of the Hayden Lake movement.²¹ The SPLC's Morlin, who was an eyewitness at a gathering on Winkler's land, recorded him saying "We're messengers" and "We ain't planning on having a war right here."²⁴ After a cross was lit near Priest River, Winkler told KREM it was a "pro-Christian ceremony."²² He sought the Republican nomination for Bonner County sheriff in 2012; the primary result is not in the sources read.²³ The county sheriff, Daryl Wheeler, called the candidacy "an embarrassment to our beautiful community." Former Sandpoint mayor Gretchen Hellar predicted he would get "maybe" his own vote. Stewart said Winkler "failed at this attempt," and the SPLC's Mark Potok called it the "latest failed attempt." The Task Force's strategy, per Boise State Public Radio, was to ignore him. His land was set for a foreclosure sale in January 2013, and the SPLC reported in 2016 that he had moved to Mississippi and claimed a Klan affiliation.

Kyle Chapman

Reported by the Idaho Statesman, July 21, 2022 (adverse stance, with his own words). Chapman, known online as "Based Stickman," moved to Boise in 2020. In a Telegram group he promoted Idaho as the "best location in the country to weather the storm" and called it an "ethnic enclave." At an arraignment he said, "I'm not that person anymore."²⁶ Local reaction quoted by the paper included a barbershop owner, Wendy Rose, who said she would not serve him, and comments from Cherie Buckner-Webb and Rabbi Dan Fink. The court record (Idaho Department of Correction): a conviction for battery against health care workers, Ada County CR01-21-45164, with a sentence-satisfaction date of August 19, 2028. The record shows the offense and not any ideology, and it does not establish membership in any group.²⁷

The Redoubt's founder, in his own words

James Wesley Rawles (email quoted in the Sandpoint Reader, November 22, 2017; self-account). Rawles, who wrote the 2011 "American Redoubt" essay on SurvivalBlog, told the Sandpoint Reader the Redoubt is religious and not racial, that he is anti-racist, and that he welcomes Christians of all races and Orthodox and Messianic Jews.²⁸ The SPLC's January 2019 piece about Rawles, which carries its own labels, itself states that the Redoubt is not a movement of overt white supremacists.²⁹ No court record, government document or news report used in this module links the Redoubt to any case in this lesson.

People and personalities

The profiles below say who each person was, how they behaved in the documented record, and how others dealt with them. They draw only on the sources already cited. Where a source is an advocacy organization or a single report, the profile says so.

Thomas Rousseau

Founder and leader of Patriot Front, according to NBC, NPR and Walters. The sources read do not describe him as an Idaho resident. He was arrested on June 11, 2022 and charged with misdemeanor conspiracy to riot. He appeared in court by video in August 2022 and pleaded not guilty,³⁸ represented himself for about six months, and then worked with Kinzo Mihara from December 2022. Police and prosecutors described him as the author of a plan; his lawyers and he described a lawful demonstration. A magistrate dismissed his case on discovery and evidence-preservation grounds, and the dismissal stands after appeal. He has no Idaho conviction. Reporters describe the group as white nationalist (NBC, Walters); the group is not described as Nazi in the sources used here.

Police and city officials

Chief Lee White led the operation and the press conference, and faced a wave of threats afterward. Mayor Jim Hammond spoke to NPR in the language of civic memory, "We're not going back to the days of the Aryan Nations." Former mayor Steve Widmyer spoke in 2021 of wanting to catch those responsible for the stickers. Sheriff Bob Norris was publicly criticized for appearing at an April 2022 event and said he did not share the speakers' views. Sgt. Christie Wood (2009) took the First Amendment line on the leaflets; NPR in 2022 names a Christie Wood as Task Force chair and city councilor, and the sources do not confirm the two are the same person.

Judges and lawyers

Judge Destry Randles (Jessop dismissal), Magistrate Judge John Cafferty (Rousseau dismissal), Judge Anna Eckhart (the August 2022 arraignment), Judge James Stow (the July 21, 2023 sentences, per KXLY and the earlier text of this lesson), Judge Ross Pittman (the preservation order). For the State: Wes Somerton and Ryan Hunter, in a small city office. For the defense: Kinzo Mihara, a conflict public defender who also represents four of the seven convicted on appeal. The record shows judges losing patience with the prosecutors' handling of evidence, and prosecutors blaming a defense strategy of fishing expeditions. Both sides' accounts are in the record, and the District Court sided with the magistrate.

The five convicted in July 2023 and the others arrested

NBC names the five convicted by the jury: Forrest Rankin, Devin Center, Derek Smith, James Johnson and Robert Whitted. Outlets give different middle names for Johnson (NBC one, the Associated Press and the SPLC another), so none is printed here; the docket would settle it. Only those five are named here as convicted at trial. Twenty others pleaded to a lesser charge, four had bench warrants, and Richard Jessop, an Idaho resident, had his case dismissed in August 2023. One other defendant was convicted in an unrelated matter that this lesson does not name and that has no bearing on the Idaho case.

Jerald O'Brien, Paul Mullet and Shaun Winkler

O'Brien claimed leadership of Aryan Nations in 2009 and was later said by the SPLC to have faded from view. Mullet, of Athol, moved between factions; the SPLC says he was ousted from Aryan Nations in October 2010. Winkler, about 33 in 2012, is described by the SPLC as a former follower of Richard Butler; the SPLC reports he bought 17.3 acres in Bonner County in March 2011 and held cross-lightings on it. He ran in the sheriff primary and his land was set for a foreclosure sale. Neighbors and officials answered them by naming their acts as unwelcome, by pointing to the First Amendment where speech alone was involved, and, in Winkler's case, by a deliberate strategy of not giving him attention. Sources: Spokesman-Review, KNKX, KREM, Boise State Public Radio, SPLC (advocacy source; check its claims against records).

Kyle Chapman, David Reilly and Vincent James

Chapman is covered above. Reporters at the Statesman and NPR describe Reilly, of Post Falls, as a self-described Christian nationalist who attended the 2017 Charlottesville rally and led a rosary prayer opposing a Pride event, and James as having moved to North Idaho and spoken at a white nationalist conference. These are reporters' descriptions and not court findings, no charge against either man appears in the sources read, and attendance at a rally is not membership in a group. A reader should not treat "Christian nationalist" as a description of Christian conservatives; the module keeps the two apart.

The grid-plot defendants

The government's release describes Kryscuk as the man who made firearms, Collins as the one who allegedly stole military gear and had it delivered, and Duncan as the one who gathered reference material on firearms, explosives and nerve toxins. They pleaded guilty and received between 21 months and 10 years. Their behavior is known only through the government's account and their pleas, not through interviews, so this lesson says nothing of their personalities beyond that record.

Tony Stewart and the Task Force

Stewart appears in 2009, 2012 and 2022 coverage as the same calm, repeating voice: hate speech is legal, hate crimes are not, and the response is to organize against hate and not to hand its promoters attention. He was an adverse voice toward every group in this lesson and a consistent source for reporters.

Enrique Tarrio and James Wesley Rawles

Tarrio, the Proud Boys' national chairman, was convicted of seditious conspiracy, sentenced to 22 years and, in January 2025, granted clemency; asked about remorse he answered "Absolutely not." He is not documented in any Idaho case. Rawles is an author who originated the American Redoubt idea and says it is religious and not racial. Nothing in a court or government record seen links Rawles to extremism, and the module keeps him and the Redoubt apart from every group above.

The reporters

The lesson rests on named reporters: Daniel Walters (InvestigateWest), Garrett Cabeza, Alison Boggs and Meghann Cuniff (Spokesman-Review), Nicole Blanchard (Idaho Statesman), Heath Druzin (Boise State Public Radio), Audrey Dutton and Kelcie Moseley-Morris (Idaho Capital Sun), Kaye Thornbrugh (Hagadone Media), Odette Yousef (NPR) and Bill Morlin (SPLC, formerly a long-time Spokesman-Review reporter). Morlin's SPLC pieces are advocacy-source work by an experienced local reporter, and each fact in them still needs a second source.

Source notes for reporters

• Verify every Patriot Front outcome against the Kootenai County docket. The February 2024 account by Daniel Walters is a news summary; the numbers (7, 20, 2, 4) are as reported, and KREM's November 2023 counts differ.
• The federal press release is the source for the neo-Nazi label in the grid case; quote it.
• Keep Patriot Front, the Panhandle Patriots, People's Rights and Iron March-linked defendants apart. The sources describe four different kinds of group.
• Do not connect the American Redoubt or Christian conservatives (two different things) or conservative political groups to any group in this lesson. No source used here does.
• Attribute every SPLC, ADL or ACLU classification or count to that organization, and corroborate it with a court record, a government document or a source from another point of view before relying on it.
• For named living people, use only what a court record or the person's own public statement supports.

Learn more

• Idaho State Police: Crime in Idaho reports, including hate-crime counts.
• ADL: Incident audits and the Hate on Display symbol database; an advocacy organization; attribute findings to the ADL and corroborate them.
• SPLC: Group profiles and the annual hate-group map; an advocacy organization whose classifications are disputed by some of the groups it lists; attribute them to the SPLC and corroborate them.
• Wassmuth Center for Human Rights: Boise education center; speakers on online extremism.

Notes

1. "Hate makes a comeback in the Pacific Northwest," Associated Press via Courthouse News, May 27, 2019. Read it online. ↩
2. "Idaho's fight against the far right, then and now," NPR, June 27, 2022 (carried by WAMC). Read it online. ↩
3. "White nationalists convicted of planning to riot at Idaho Pride event," NBC News. Read it online. ↩
4. "Idaho resurfaces for a new generation as a Western refuge of the radical right," Idaho Statesman and McClatchy, part two of a series, June 2022 (text read via Yahoo News). Read it online. ↩
5. Daniel Walters, "How North Idaho prosecutors lost the case against Patriot Front's white nationalist leader," InvestigateWest, February 8, 2024; republished by the Idaho Capital Sun (February 12, 2024) and, as "How local Idaho prosecutors lost the case...," by East Idaho News. Read it online. ↩
6. "Patriot Front members sentenced to 5 days in jail, banned from Coeur d'Alene parks," KXLY, July 21, 2023. Read it online. ↩
7. U.S. Attorney's Office press release, "Last five defendants with ties to white supremacy and who were charged with targeting Idaho energy..." (District of Idaho posting). Read it online. Charges and pleas are as the government reports them; sentencing outcomes are in the DOJ releases at note 30. ↩
8. "Hate crimes rising in Idaho, police report," Boise State Public Radio, July 9, 2025, citing Idaho State Police, Crime in Idaho 2024. Read it online. ↩
9. "Special report: Jewish Idahoans face record hate over Gaza war," KIFI Local News 8, October 11, 2024. Read it online. ↩
10. "Hate crimes down 24% in Idaho in 2025, but Jews, who are 0.3% of Idahoans, targets of 29% of religion-based incidents," JNS, July 30, 2026. Read it online. Only the headline and summary were read; the figures are confirmed in the Idaho State Police report (notes 35 and 36). ↩
11. Daniel Walters, "How North Idaho prosecutors lost the case against Patriot Front's white nationalist leader," InvestigateWest, February 8, 2024 (Idaho Capital Sun, February 12, 2024). Read it online. Full text read; a news report with a headline label. ↩
12. Kootenai County District Court, memorandum decision on appeal, State of Idaho v. Thomas Rousseau, CR28-22-8737 (file dated July 10, 2024). Read it online. Court record; only an excerpt was read, and the judge and decision date are not visible there. ↩
13. "Court documents in CdA Pride riot case," KTVB/KING 5, June 2022. Read it online. A news report of probable-cause documents. ↩
14. "They came to riot": Chief Lee White press conference, ABC News, June 12, 2022. Read it online. Official statements, second hand. ↩
15. "Coeur d'Alene police receive threats after arresting Patriot Front," Yahoo News (syndicated), June 13, 2022. Read it online. No byline in the copy read. ↩
16. Audrey Dutton and Kelcie Moseley-Morris, "Idaho political leaders, groups react to reports of Patriot Front arrests in Coeur d'Alene," Idaho Capital Sun, June 13, 2022. Read it online. A snapshot as of that Monday. ↩
17. Kaye Thornbrugh, "Records reveal new Patriot Front details," Bonner County Daily Bee (Hagadone), June 30, 2022. Read it online. ↩
18. "Kootenai County sheriff criticized for appearing at rally attended by white nationalists," KREM, April 2022. Read it online. The headline label is the station's; the story does not show the sheriff's beliefs. ↩
19. Alison Boggs, "Racist group leaves fliers on lawns," Spokesman-Review, April 18, 2009. Read it online. O'Brien's statements are his own as reported. ↩
20. Meghann M. Cuniff, "North Idaho men cited for distributing racist fliers," Spokesman-Review, August 10, 2009. Read it online. Citations are not convictions. ↩
21. Jessica Robinson, "Failed compound illustrates disarray in white supremacy movement," KNKX, November 2012. Read it online. ↩
22. "North Idaho sheriff candidate defends cross burning as pro-Christian ceremony," KREM, March 2012. Read it online. ↩
23. Jessica Robinson, "Strategy against KKK candidate is to ignore him," Boise State Public Radio, March 19, 2012. Read it online. The primary result is not in the article. ↩
24. Bill Morlin, "Neo-Nazi builds North Idaho compound to replace defunct Aryan Nations," SPLC Intelligence Report, 2012. Read it online. An advocacy organization; the account is a single reporter's eyewitness report and should be corroborated. ↩
25. Bill Morlin, "Aryan Deflations," SPLC Intelligence Report, February 17, 2016. Read it online. An advocacy organization; the author was a long-time Spokesman-Review reporter. ↩
26. Nicole Blanchard, "A white nationalist moved to Idaho in search of an 'ethnic enclave'," Idaho Statesman (carried by the Spokesman-Review), July 21, 2022. Read it online. ↩
27. Idaho Department of Correction, resident record for Kyle Sean Chapman. Read it online. A government record of the offense, read October 26, 2026. ↩
28. Lyndsie Kiebert, "The American Redoubt Series: the Redoubt as told by founding voice James Wesley Rawles," Sandpoint Reader, November 22, 2017. Read it online. Rawles's words were given by email. ↩
29. SPLC Hatewatch, January 3, 2019, on Rawles. Read it online. An advocacy source; its headline labels are the SPLC's and are not adopted here. ↩
30. U.S. Department of Justice, "Defendants with ties to white supremacy sentenced in connection with plot to destroy energy facilities" (July and October 2024 announcements). Read it online. Court outcomes as the government reports them. ↩
31. U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Columbia, "Jury convicts four leaders of Proud Boys of seditious conspiracy," May 4, 2023. Read it online. A primary source. ↩
32. "Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is sentenced to 22 years," NPR, September 5, 2023. Read it online. See also the Department of Justice release on the sentencing of other Proud Boys leaders. ↩
33. "Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio arrives back in Miami after pardon," WPTV, January 22, 2025. Read it online. Tarrio's own answers; the form of clemency was not checked against the proclamation. ↩
34. "Far-right Proud Boys march in parade in Buhl," Associated Press via the Spokesman-Review, July 12, 2021. Read it online. The headline label "far-right" is the AP's. ↩
35. Idaho State Police, Crime in Idaho 2025, section 7, "Hate Crime in Idaho," released July 29, 2026. Read it online. A government report. ↩
36. Idaho State Police, "2025 Crime in Idaho report released," July 29, 2026. Read it online. ↩
37. "White supremacist group boasts on social media about hanging banner from Boise overpass," KIVI, January 2021. Read it online. The headline label is the station's. ↩
38. "Alleged Patriot Front leader appears in Idaho court," Coeur d'Alene Press, August 30, 2022. Read it online. ↩
39. "Patriot Front charges dropped," KREM, November 24, 2023. Read it online. Counts differ from InvestigateWest's February 2024 counts. ↩
40. "Patriot Front leader charge dismissed, Kootenai prosecutors appealing," KXLY, November 2023. Read it online. ↩
41. Heath Druzin, "Long before Patriot Front came, Idaho political figures targeted Pride event," Boise State Public Radio, July 7, 2022. Read it online. ↩
42. "Police in Idaho arrested dozens of Patriot Front members near a Pride event," NPR, June 2022 (Kirk Siegler; transcript). Read it online. ↩