A screen shot by the King of Wrath. Photo: DOJ
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The San Jose leader of a White supremacist group who goes by "King ov (sic) Wrath" was arrested Tuesday for allegedly threatening a journalist in Brooklyn, New York, the Department of Justice Announced.
The complaint charges that Nicholas Welker, 31, the one-time leader of Feuerkrieg Division, an international racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group, posted death threats against a Brooklyn-based journalist in a public online forum and his co-conspirators tweeted the death threats at the journalist for reporting on the extremist group.
The journalist and their outlet were not named.
Efforts to immediately reach Welker and his attorney Wednesday were not successful.
"Nicholas Welker used threats of violence in an effort to stop a journalist from reporting on the white supremacist hate group that he led," Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement. " He sought to quell freedom of expression and to intimidate and instill fear in a journalist and the journalist’s employer—a well-known news media organization. We will not hesitate to prosecute those who threaten the core values on which our society was founded, including freedom of the press."
Nicholas Welker’s threat included an image that featured a gun aimed at the journalist’s head with the words "Race Traitor" over the journalist’s eyes and stated, "JOURNALIST FUCK OFF! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED."
Welker’s threat included an image that featured a gun aimed at the journalist’s head with the words "Race Traitor" over the journalist’s eyes and stated, "JOURNALIST FUCK OFF! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED."
The threat highlighted that the journalist "Works as a Reporter" at a news media company and is "Responsible for Stalking our Boys for Information."
After Welker posted the threat to an online forum, Welker’s two co-conspirators, who are minors, allegedly tweeted the threat directly at the journalist’s twitter handle, in the hope that the journalist would see the death threat and stop reporting, according to the charges.
Welker's organization encourages attacks on racial minorities, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ+ community, the U.S. Government, journalists, and critical infrastructure. FKD has members in the United States and abroad.
If convicted on all counts, Welker faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, the New York City Police Department and the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office investigated the case.