Four men tied to the Michigan-based white supremacist group known as “The Base” have all entered pleas in their respective cases.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday, May 17, the cases against Base members Justen Watkins, Alfred Gorman, Thomas Denton and Tristan Webb have all ended in guilty pleas, with one case making history for being the first successful conviction using a charge of conspiring to train for a civil disorder.
“Securing these convictions on the conspiracy to train for civil disorder holds significance for many reasons,” Nessel said. “They reiterate this office’s commitment to protecting Michigan residents, they create a historic precedent in our state’s court system, and they convey the real danger domestic terrorism poses here and around the country.”
The Base, founded in 2018, is a white supremacy group that openly advocates for violence and criminal acts against the U.S., and purports to be training for a race war to establish white ethno-nationalist rule in areas of the U.S., including Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office,
The group also traffics in Nazi ideology and extreme anti-Semitism, at one point requiring its members to read neo-Nazi books that urge the collapse of Western civilization.
Watkins pleaded guilty, April 18, to one felony count of gang membership for his role in the group, which is accused of terrorizing a Dexter family in December 2019, after mistaking their home for the home of a podcaster who speaks out against white supremacists.
Michigan white supremacist group leader pleads guilty to gang membership
In pleading guilty, his additional counts of unlawfully posting a message and using a computer to commit a crime will be dismissed at his sentencing scheduled for June 13.
Watkins also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder and felony firearm in Tuscola County where he, Denton and Webb were accused of breaking into two former Michigan Department of Corrections sites in an effort to use them to train members of the hate group.
Gorman pleaded guilty Jan. 10 to one felony count of gang membership and was sentenced to four years of probation and to spend one year working alongside a University of Michigan professor of Ethnic Studies.
Michigan hate group member sentenced to work with ethnic studies professor, avoids jail time
Denton pleaded no contest to felony firearm and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder in Tuscola County and was later sentenced to two years for felony firearm and between nine months and four years for the conspiracy charge, which will run concurrently.
Webb pleaded no contest to gang membership, conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder and felony firearm. The larceny in a building charge will be dismissed as part of the plea.
“The pleas serve as an example of the FBI’s continued commitment to work alongside its law enforcement partners at every level to protect the security of our nation—even when Federal criminal statutes may not be available,” said James A. Tarasca, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit Division which aided in investigating the group.
The Dexter family was “terrorized” by two men who, dressed in all black, shined a light in their home, took photos of their property and posted their address online to The Base’s social media platform, according to the AG’s Office.
It is believed the pair mistakenly targeted the home thinking it belonged to podcaster Daniel Harper, as the photo posted on social media had the caption, “The Base sends greetings to Daniel Harper of the Antifa podcast ‘I Don’t Speak German’.”
Though a person by the name of Daniel Harper previously lived at the Dexter address, the podcaster has never lived in Dexter and is not related to the previous occupant, officials said.
Watkins, the self-proclaimed leader of The Base, was arrested while on bond after he, Denton and Webb were caught entering two former Michigan Department of Corrections sites, the Camp Tuscola Annex and the Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program.
Both locations have been vacant in the city of Caro since Oct. 3, 2020, with the properties now being owned by the Michigan State Land Bank Authority.
Investigators discovered the men took state-issued clothing from one of the locations as they were allegedly assessing the sites as potential future training grounds for “hate camps,” officials said.
“I appreciate the thorough work done by our team and partner agencies to secure these convictions,” Nessel said. “Let them send the message that in Michigan, we will not hesitate to prosecute those who commit crimes in the name of overthrowing our government or perpetuating racist ideologies.”
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