Attorneys for an Indiana man who had pleaded guilty to painting swastikas and setting a fire at a Carmel, Indiana, synagogue tried to blame their client’s crime on Fox News and one of America’s most prominent Jewish conservatives.
In a sentencing memo filed last week with the Southern District of Indiana, Nolan Brewer’s legal team argued he should not go to prison at all for the anti-Semitic crimes, in significant part because he said he had been radicalized by his minor wife and conservative news outlets, including columnist Ben Shapiro.
“According to Nolan, she began with rightwing yet mainstream views such as those presented on Fox News. She then moved on to writings by Ben Shapiro and articles on Breitbart News which bridged the gap to the notorious white supremacist and anti-Semitic propaganda site Stormfront,” attorneys wrote in the defense memo, arguing that their client should only receive probation and community service.
The judge didn’t buy it.
Brewer was sentenced last week to three years in prison for conspiring to violate the civil rights of Congregation Shaarey Tefilla.
Mr. Shapiro also was unimpressed by the effort at blaming him, responding to an article in BuzzFeed about how Brewer “admitted how far-right figures radicalized him.”
“Yes, if there’s one thing I’m known for — as one of the most prominent Orthodox Jews, targets of the alt-right, and critics of the alt-right in America — it’s directing Nazis to attack synagogues. What garbage,” he wrote on Twitter.
Yes, if there’s one thing I’m known for — as one of the most prominent Orthodox Jews, targets of the alt-right, and critics of the alt-right in America — it’s directing Nazis to attack synagogues. What garbage. https://t.co/ckuIO5kEc0
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 26, 2019
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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