Three white supremacist men plead guilty to plotting a terrorist attack to disrupt the electrical grid to trigger a race war.
On Wednesday, the federal prosecutors in Ohio said the men planned to cause civil unrest and economic uncertainty for the sake of white supremacy. Christopher Cook, Jonathan Frost, and Jackson Sawall hoped the power grid disruption would cause a race war, but their plan failed.
“They had conversations about how the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause war. Even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression,” the Justice Department said.
Cook and Frost met in 2019 through an online chat group, and Sawall joined the duo later that year. According to prosecutors, Frost’s idea was to disrupt the electrical grid, and the trio began recruiting and planning. The three men attacked the substations in significant cities by shooting at them.
The men directed their focus to Columbus, Ohio, where Cook and Frost once painted a swastika with “Join the Front” under a bridge in 2020. The trio took their plan even further to Texas, where Cook attempted to recruit teenagers to join their mission.
According to the Justice Department, the men had a suicide plan if they were caught before completing the plan. The trio had “suicide necklaces” filled with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid. However, upon a traffic stop, Sawall took a portion of the drug but survived.
It’s hasn’t been confirmed how the plot unfolded, but the case is now sealed.
