Three men were sentenced today for various conspiracy and firearms offenses in connection with a racially-motivated scheme to destroy an energy facility.
Paul James Kryscuk, 38, of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced today to six years and six months in prison for conspiracy to destroy an energy facility. Liam Collins, 25, of Johnston, Rhode Island, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting the interstate transportation of unregistered firearms. Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, of Swansboro, North Carolina, was sentenced today to one year and nine months in prison for conspiracy to manufacture firearms and ship interstate.
“As part a self-described ‘modern day SS,’ these defendants conspired, prepared, and trained to attack America’s power grid in order to advance their violent white supremacist ideology,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “These sentences reflect both the depravity of their plot and the Justice Department’s commitment to holding accountable those who seek to use violence to undermine our democracy.”
According to court documents and other information presented in court, Kryscuk, Collins, and Hermanson researched, discussed and reviewed at length a previous attack on the power grid by an unknown group. The group depicted in the attack used assault-style rifles in an attempt to explode a power substation. Between 2017 and 2020, Kryscuk manufactured firearms while Collins stole military gear, including magazines for assault-style rifles, and had them delivered to the other defendants. During that time, co-defendant Jordan Duncan gathered a library of information – some military-owned – regarding firearms, explosives, and nerve toxins and shared that information with Kryscuk and Collins. In October 2020, a handwritten list of approximately one dozen intersections and places in Idaho and surrounding states was discovered in Kryscuk’s possession, including intersections and places containing a transformer, substation, or other component of the power grid for the northwest United States.
Previously filed charges alleged that Collins and Kryscuk were members of and made multiple posts on the “Iron March” forum, a gathering point for young neo-Nazis to organize and recruit for extremist organizations, until the forum was closed in late 2017. Collins and Kryscuk met through the forum and expanded their group using an encrypted messaging application as an alternate means of communication outside of the forum. Collins and Kryscuk recruited additional members, including Duncan, Hermanson, and co-defendant Joseph Maurino, and conducted training, including a live-fire training in the desert near Boise, Idaho. From video footage recorded by the members during the training, Kryscuk, Duncan and others produced a montage video of their training. In the video, the participants are seen firing short barrel rifles and other assault-type rifles, and the end of the propaganda video shows the four participants outfitted in Atomwaffen masks giving the “Heil Hitler” sign, beneath the image of a black sun, a Nazi symbol. The last frame bears the phrase, “Come home white man.” Prior to their arrests, Collins and Duncan had relocated to Idaho from North Carolina and Texas, respectively, to be near Kryscuk.
The FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigated the case.
Trial Attorney John Cella of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Barbara Kocher and Gabriel Diaz for the Eastern District of North Carolina are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Assistant United States Attorneys for the District of Idaho, District of New Jersey, Eastern District of New York, and the District of Rhode Island.