A former US Navy SEAL who thought the government was controlled by Israel and the Jewish people was convicted on Monday of plotting to throw explosives at law enforcement officers at the No Kings Day protest, according to the New Mexico District US Attorney's Office.
Gregory Vandenberg had purchased fireworks in New Mexico on June 12 with the intention of throwing them at police officers during the June 14 protests against US President Donald Trump in San Diego.
The 49-year-old man with no fixed abode or employment emphasized to the store clerk that he only cared about the explosive effect and considered taping fireworks together to increase their impact. Wearing a shirt that read "Amalek," a biblical arch enemy of the Israelites, Vandenberg encouraged the clerk to join him at the protests.
Police investigation leads to fireworks, radical materials
Alarmed by his comments, which included expressions of a desire to throw fireworks at law enforcement officials, employees of the store contacted law enforcement. He was tracked down by police in Tucson.
Inside Vandenberg's vehicle, law enforcement found the fireworks, antisemitic, anti-Israel, and radical materials. This included a shirt with Al-Qaeda and Black Sun neo-Nazi symbols, and a hat with the jihadist black standard. One shirt referenced the 1967 USS Liberty friendly fire incident by Israeli against the US, and another stated "Judea must be destroyed" in Latin, a reference to Roman senator Cato the Elder's slogan calling for the destruction of Carthage. A Hat was found with the former SEAL, who said that the shirt reading "Amalek" meant "destroyer of Jews."
Review of the suspect's phone found violent and extremist content, antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American materials, and messages suggesting he was upset with Trump and the government because he believed the latter to be controlled by Israel and the Jews.
Vandenberg was convicted on Monday of transporting explosives with intent to kill, injure, or intimidate and attempting to transport prohibited fireworks into California. He faces up to ten years in prison.
“People in this country are free to hold their own beliefs and to express them peacefully,” Acting US Attorney Ryan Ellison said in a statement. “What they are not free to do is use explosives to threaten or terrorize others. Vandenberg intended to turn explosives into a tool of intimidation, and this verdict sends the message that attempts to substitute violence for expressing one’s opinion have no place in our communities and will be met with federal consequences.”