A security contractor at a New Jersey Naval Weapons Station charged in the storming of the Capitol is a white supremacist and anti-Semite who told co-workers that “Hitler should have finished the job,” according to a new court filing against him.
Forty-four co-workers of Army reservist Timothy Hale-Cusanelli were interviewed, and 34 said he held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women,” according to the motion filed Friday in federal district court in the District of Columbia.
One co-worker told investigators that Hale-Cusanelli, 36, said at work that Adolf Hitler “should have finished the job,” in reference to the Holocaust. Another said he “constantly” denigrated Jewish people.
He was once reprimanded for mockingly sporting a Hitler mustache at work; he would “make racial jokes and not be quiet about it;” he was considered “unstable,” and some co-workers were “afraid” of him, according to the motion.
Hale-Cusanelli had “secret” security clearance for his work, which gave him access to some sensitive information. He admitted to investigators that he stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of electoral votes for President Joe Biden, according to the motion.
The federal government sought to block Hale-Cusanelli’s pretrial release due to his “fantasy of participating in another Civil War,” the court document stated.
Hale-Cusanelli has argued in court that he was merely “following the entreaties of then-commander in chief” Donald Trump.
His comments came to light just as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) hailed the almost universally white Capitol rioters in a radio interview Friday as people who “love this country” and “truly respect law enforcement” who would “never do anything to break the law.” He said he would have been “concerned,” however, had the rioters been Black Lives Matter protesters. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died during the attack.