Federal prosecutors won a guilty plea Monday from yet another white supremacist stemming from the August 2017 riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Justice Department announced.
Thomas Walter Gillen came from California to be part of the marches that turned violent, and he admitted Monday in federal court in Charlottesville that he intended to incite riots. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot.
Gillen admitted to being part of the Rise Above Movement, which prosecutors call a “combat-ready” militia that bills itself as the vanguard of a new white supremacy movement.
He is one of four RAM members indicted last year. One of them, Cole Evan White, already had pleaded guilty.
“The First Amendment protects an individual’s or organization’s right to speak, assemble, and espouse political views, but it does not license insensate acts of violence committed under the guise of First Amendment expression,” U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen said in a statement.
The plea comes as Charlottesville is once again in the forefront of politics.
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden used the clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters at the rally as the centerpiece of his announcement that he’s running for the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump, saying the president’s reaction to the riots was unacceptable.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, again defended his handling of the situation, saying his comments that there were good people on both sides of the fracas was intended to praise those who were defending a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, not to support white supremacists.
The rally drew far-right activists from around the country to Charlottesville, where they were confronted by anti-Trump activists who also had come from afar. Both sides were determined to make a statement.
Police have been blamed for failing to plan for the situation and for canceling a march on Saturday, spurring clashes by groups from both sides.
One woman died after a man who had marched with the white supremacists plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters. The man was convicted of murder.
Two state police troopers monitoring the situation in a helicopter were killed when it crashed.
In the case of Gillen, he and other RAM members took part in an Aug. 11, 2017, tiki-torch march, whose images Mr. Biden used in his announcement video. The marchers chanted anti-Semitic slogans, and prosecutors said Gillen used his torch to beat counterprotesters.
The next day, Gillen and RAM members arrived for the main rally with hands wrapped in athletic tape, ready to rumble.
When they entered the park where the rally was to take place they made their way through a group of counterprotesters, where they “pushed, punched, kicked, chocked, head-butted and otherwise assaulted several individuals, resulting in a riot,” prosecutors said.
“These actions were not in self-defense,” the government concluded.
Prosecutors said Gillen and other RAM members committed violent acts at other 2017 demonstrations and rallies in Huntington Beach and Berkley, California, The Associated Press reported.
A third defendant, Michael Paul Miselis, has a change-of-plea hearing scheduled Friday in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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