Conor Climo, the Las Vegas man charged in August in federal court for planning to carry out a terrorist attack on a synagogue and gay bar, has pleaded guilty to the charges.
The AP reports: “Conor Climo, 24, stood rigidly in yellow jail scrubs, answering, ‘Yes, your honor,”‘ while U.S. District Judge James Mahan questioned him about encrypted internet chats with an FBI informant and his membership in Feuerkrieg Division, an offshoot of a U.S.-based neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Division. Climo said he possessed ‘materials required to make a destructive device, your honor.’ He pleaded guilty to felony possession of an unregistered firearm.”
The Nevada Department of Justice reported in August: “Conor Climo, 23, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was charged by a criminal complaint with one count of possession of an unregistered firearm – namely, the component parts of a destructive device. Climo was arrested Thursday morning and made his initial appearance on Friday afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe.”
The Nevada DOJ added: “According to the criminal complaint, Climo was communicating with individuals who identified with a white supremacist extremist organization using the National Socialist Movement to promote their ideology. Members believe in the superiority of the white race and have a common goal of challenging the established laws, social order, and government via terrorism and other violent acts. The organization encourages attacks on the federal government, including critical infrastructure, minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community.”
The DOJ’s release continued: “The complaint alleges that during encrypted online conversations throughout 2019, Climo would regularly use derogatory racial, anti-Semitic, and homosexual slurs. He discussed attacking a Las Vegas synagogue and making Molotov Cocktails and improvised explosive devices, and he also discussed conducting surveillance on a bar he believed catered to the LGBTQ community located on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. The criminal complaint also describes that items seized by law enforcement during the execution of an August 8, 2019 search warrant, including a notebook with several hand-drawn schematics for a potential Las Vegas-area attack. The notebook also contained drawings of timed explosive devises. Furthermore, Climo claimed to have tried to recruit a homeless individual for pre-attack surveillance against at least one Las Vegas synagogue and other targets. His recruitment attempts proved fruitless.”
Climo went viral in 2016 after saying he was planning to carry out a one-man armed foot patrol of his neighborhood.
Climo would have faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at trial but because of his plea “could face between two and three years behind bars at sentencing May 14” according to the AP.
