Accused neo-Nazi Patrik Mathews to be sentenced in Maryland court
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details
Patrik Mathews — a former Manitoba army reservist and an alleged recruiter for a neo-Nazi group — is expected to learn whether he will spend decades in prison at his sentencing Thursday morning in Maryland.
The hearing starts at 8:30 a.m. CT in Greenbelt, Md.
Mathews pleaded guilty in June to gun charges linked to what the FBI has described as a neo-Nazi plot to attack a gun-rights rally in Virginia last January, which he and his co-accused, Brian Lemley Jr., were hoping would lead to clashes between police and tens of thousands of heavily armed protesters.
Lemley, with whom Mathews lived in Delaware, is set to be sentenced the same day.
A U.S. army veteran who served in Iraq, Lemley has also pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including illegally transporting a firearm and obstruction of justice.
American prosecutors have said the pair wanted to instigate a civil war that would "decimate racial and ethnic minorities and subjugate women," court documents show.
Though Mathews and Lemley Jr. have not been charged with terrorism, prosecutors successfully argued for a "terrorism enhancement" earlier this week, meaning a judge agreed their crimes were promoting a federal crime of terrorism.
The enhancement means they could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.
Mathews was first publicly identified as a recruiter for The Base in 2019 after an undercover investigation by Winnipeg Free Press reporter Ryan Thorpe.
He then disappeared after RCMP raided his Beaujeasour home.
When the RCMP executed a search warrant at his residence on Aug. 19, 2019, they found a handwritten list of mass shootings in a trash can, which included the year, number of dead and whether the shooter was on medication, court documents revealed.
Mathews later crossed into the United States and was missing for several months until he was arrested in Maryland in January 2020.
Court documents revealed that the FBI conducted an underground operation beginning in July 2019 when an undercover agent went through an online vetting interview for admission into The Base.
Intelligence regarding foreign interference sometimes didn't make it to the prime minister's desk in 2021 because Canada's spy agency and the prime minister's national security adviser didn't always see eye to eye on the nature of the threat, according to a recent report from one of Canada's intelligence watchdogs.