The United States Attorney's Office

Western District of Virginia

NEWS RELEASE
United States Attorney Julia C. Dudley
Western District of Virginia

December 11, 2008

LEADER OF AMERICAN NATIONAL SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY INDICTED
William A. White charged with Making Multiple Threats of Violence via the Internet

Roanoke, Virginia - Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, Julia C. Dudley and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker announced today that William A. "Bill" White, the self-proclaimed Commander of the neo-Nazi group the American National Socialist Workers Party, was indicted by a federal grand jury for threatening five individuals and for attempting to intimidate litigants in a federal housing discrimination lawsuit.

The Grand Jury returned a seven-count indictment which charges White with five counts of making a threat to injure via e-mail, Internet or telephone communication, one count of making a threat to injure with the intent of extorting something of value and one count of making a threat to injure with the intent of intimidating a witness from testifying in an official court proceeding. All of these threats were made while White was a resident of Roanoke, Virginia.

"The Internet has proven to be a powerful force in our daily lives. It has made information from across the globe available at the click of a mouse," Acting United States Attorney Julia C. Dudley said today. "The law enforcement community cannot allow individuals to unlawfully threaten anyone, in any manner. When violent threats are made, legal action must be taken and justice must be served."

According to the indictment returned this morning, White used a variety of electronic formats to post threats against various individuals. Those formats include a website he operated, www.overthrow.com, the internet chat group www.nsmamerica@yahoogroups and the Vanguard News Network websites, among others. The indictment describes these outlets as being frequented by audiences that agree with the white supremacist doctrine.

Counts one and two of the indictment charge White with making a threat via e-mail to injure JP, an employee of Citibank and with making a threat to injure with the intent to extort something of value from a person or corporation.

According to information contained in the indictment, JP was assigned to handle a financial dispute involving White's Citibank accounts. The defendant made several phone call inquires to Citibank offices in an attempt to obtain JP's identity and home address. White eventually discovered JP's office and home telephone number. He left voice mails on both her work and home telephones.

On March 22, White sent an e-mail to JP. In that e-mail he included information about a Federal Judge [JL] who presided over a case involving a white supremacist who solicited the murder of the judge. The husband and mother of the judge were later brutally murdered in the judge's home. White's e-mail warned JP to make his problem with Citibank go away or he would make public her personal information. "Lord knows that drawing too much publicity and making people upset is what did in JL," White wrote in an e-mail.

Count three charges White with using intimidation to delay or prevent the testimony of African American tenants in an official court proceeding. The tenants were involved in a discrimination case against their landlord.

On May 23, 2007 White allegedly mailed letters to the African American tenants at their Virginia Beach, Virginia homes. The letters displayed the letterhead of the White National Socialist American Working Party, a Nazi swastika and White's signature and title.

The letters read, in part: "I do not know [name redacted] but I do know your type of slum nigger, and I wanted you to know that your actions have not been missed by the white community ... and we know that you are and will never be anything other than a dirty parasite - and that our patience with you and the government that coddles you runs thin."

In addition to the letter, White also included a copy of the ANSWP Magazine titled "The Negro Beast and Why Blacks Who Work Aren't Worth the Cost of Welfare."
Count four charges that White threatened to injure an African American journalist, [LP], who wrote an opinion column expressing the author's views about the murder of a white couple by an African American gang in Knoxville, Tennessee.

On June 3, 2007, at approximately 11 p.m., White called LP's personal telephone at his Bowie, Maryland home and spoke with LP's wife, insisting to speak to LP. Fifteen minutes later, White sent LP an e-mail which read, in part: "You and your fellow black filth are quickly losing ground and I look forward to the rapidly approaching day when whites once again rise up and slaughter and enslave your ugly race to the last man, woman and child. Itz coming."

At 11:42 p.m., White listed LP's personal home phone number, date of birth, home address, and wife's name on overthrow.com and other websites. At the end of the post, White wrote "His wife gets very upset when you call."

The editor of the Miami Herald, one of the newspapers that regularly publishes LP's column, contacted White and asked him to take LP's personal information off his website. The defendant's response was, in part: "We have no intention of removing [LP's] personal information. Frankly, if some loony took the info and killed him, I wouldn't shed a tear. That also goes for your whole news room."

Count five charges White with threatening to injure KK, a university professor and administrator at the University of Delaware in regards to a seminar KK taught. On October 31, 2007, White called both KK's home and office telephone, attempting to verify her home address. The defendant spoke with KK's secretary and told her that he would hunt her down and that anyone who viewed racism as KK does, should be shot.

Later that morning White posted the home and vacation addresses of KK on overthrow.com and other websites. Included in the post was the text, "We shot Marxists sixty years ago, we can shoot them again!"

Count six charges the defendant with threatening to injure RW, a Canadian lawyer who advocates against illegal activities of white supremacists in Canada. In 2006, RW participated in the effort to shut down a Canadian-based Internet website administered by White that was used to communication ideals of the white supremacist doctrine.
On February 26, 2008, White posted the following message on overthrow.com under the heading Kill [RW]. "The sometimes Jewish, sometimes not, attorney behind the abuses of Canada's Human Rights Tribunal should be drug into the street and shot, after appropriate trial by a revolutionary tribunal of Canada's white activists. It won't be hard to do, he can be found, easily, at his home at [RW's home address.] ... [RW] is an enemy, not just of the white race, but of all humanity, and he must be killed. Find him at home and let him know you agree: [RW's home address]."

Count seven charges White with threatening to injure CT, the African American mayor of a town in New Jersey. On March 1, 2008, after numerous media outlets reported that the town in which CT is the mayor passed a resolution offering a reward for information identifying the people who made racist threats against the mayor, White contacted CT via telephone at approximately 11 p.m..

White spoke with CT's wife, identified himself as the Commander of a Neo-Nazi organization and insisted on speaking to CT. He told CT's wife, that he knew where she lived and was going to put a swastika on her front yard.

Approximately 45 minutes later, White sent an e-mail to CT, which read, in part, as follows: "I recently read of the racism you've faced in New Jersey, and I wanted to make something perfectly clear:

1. You are a nigger unworthy to govern over any white man; and,

2. F**k you. You've gotten exactly what you deserve from your constituents."

"Unfortunately, the days when white men would simply burn the local newspaper and run the nigger officials out with tar and feathers are past. However, your incidents give me hope that perhaps we shall see them again."

"ps: we know where you live at [CT's address and phone number]. I just spoke to your wife [CT's wife's name]. I hope you got my message."

If found guilty of communicating threats in interstate commerce, White faces a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment for each of the five counts. If found guilty of communicating extortionate threats in interstate commerce, White faces a maximum punishment of 20 years' imprisonment. If found witness intimidation, White faces a maximum punishment of ten years in prison. Each of the aforementioned charges entails a potential fine of up to $250,000.00.

The case was investigated by Special Agent David Church of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in conjunction with Assistant United States Attorney Tom Bondurant from the United States Attorney's Office, and Special Legal Counsel Barry Kowalski and Special Litigation Counsel Paige Fitzgerald from the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.

A Grand Jury indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial with the burden on the government to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.