CZM Rewind: Burning Hate: Tyler Dykes

That's really the only way to do it. And there are episodes I would love to write right now that I'm putting off because I know the ending will change if I just wait a little longer. But when I wrote this episode in October of twenty twenty four, the subject of the story was just a few days into a nearly five year term in federal prison. I figured, even if he did have a second act, it wouldn't be for another few years. At least. This part of

the story was definitely over. But that five year prison sentence ended three months later. On January twentieth, twenty twenty five, within hours of being sworn into office for his second term, Donald Trump pardoned more than fifteen hundred people who'd been charged with federal crimes related to their participation in the

January sixth insurrection. With the stroke of a pen, he erased the legal consequences of those actions, whether that consequence had been a slap on the wrist for a misdemeanor trespassing conviction or two decades in prison for seditious conspiracy. Whatever they'd done, they were free to go. Technically, most

of them already were free. Four years into the investigation and prosecution of the events of January sixth, there were hundreds of defendants who'd already resolved their cases and completed whatever sentence they'd been given. If they got any sentence at all, Hundreds of those convicted weren't sentenced to any period of incarceration. Most of the January sixth defendants still

in custody by twenty twenty five were outliers. They'd been leaders or planners where they'd committed crimes of violence, they'd used weapons, they were convicted of multiple felonies, and they were going to be in there for a while. Within twelve hours of the president's pardon, the Bureau of Prisons released two hundred and eleven January sixth defendants who were still in custody. Tyler Bradley Dykes was one of those two hundred eleven. This episode from October of twenty twenty

four is about how he ended up in prison. Now in twenty twenty five, he's running for Congress. Last week, a jury in Alpamarole County, Virginia found Augustus Sole Invictus guilty on the felony charge of burning an object with the intent to intimidate for his participation in the Nazi torch march at the University of Virginia on August eleventh,

twenty seventeen. This was not only the first trial conviction for this charge, it was the first ever jury verdict reached on a charge under Section eighteen point two dashed four twenty three point oh one of the Virginia Code.

That law passed in two thousand and two in response to the legal challenge to Virginia's crossburning statute by Pennsylvania clansman Berry black I spent the last two episodes talking about the history of cross burning in Virginia and the life and legal battles of the man who brought about this change to the law, and I told you that until last year, that law had been sitting on the books,

all but untouched for two decades. I left you last week with a terrifying image, a small group of students surrounded by a sea of flames one summer night seven years ago. I told you a few weeks ago that this is a story I've been writing and rewriting for years. I could fill six months worth of episodes with just

the stories of the men who carried those torches. The years I've spent watching the same few minutes of history, frame by frame from different angles, placing individual men within that seething mass of violent intent taught me a lot about the kinds of weird little guys that make up a crowd like this. There are cops and criminals, soldiers and soldiers of fortune, students and fathers, domestic abusers, realtors and lawyers and small business owners, social media personalities, and

wanted fugitives. They're your neighbors, your weird cousin, that guy at work you don't want to talk about politics with. They're all just some guy. There were hundreds of them there that night in August of twenty seventeen. But we'll just start with one today. I'm Molly Conger. This is weird, Little guys under You might think this episode is going to be about Augustus and Victus. It isn't. There will one day probably be a multi episode arc about the

man who calls himself the Attorney for the Damned. A man whose name literally appears in the Miriam Webster Dictionary in the example sentence for the term white nationalist. A man who has been both a proud boy and a presidential candidate, both a goat slaughtering, blood drinking wizard and a traditionalist Catholic. A father of seven with two ex wives and a string of police reports filed by wives, girlfriends, and mistresses. An attorney who's list includes white supremacist paramilitaries,

Nazi street gangs, and antisemitic trolls. A man who once renounced all of his worldly possessions and wandered off into the desert, proclaiming himself to be a god and a prophet, before quietly returning to Orlando to work at his father's law office. But that day isn't today. His conviction last

week won't be the end of his story. I'm sure of that, So I'll bide my time, because while Augustus Invictus was the first person ever found guilty by a jury of the crime of burning an object with the intent to intimidate, he wasn't the first to be convicted. Before his trial last week, there had already been five guilty pleas by other members of that march. You see, there is no statute of limitations on a felony in

the Commonwealth of Virginia. Whether or not that's wise or really in the over all best interests of justice more generally is a discussion for another day, and maybe for another person, but it is the current state of affairs, and Virginia is a southern state, the one time capital of the Confederacy. Few states without a bloody history of clan violence even have a law on the books that makes it a crime to use a burning object as a tool of intimidation. But we did have such a history,

and we do have the resulting law. So even though that march in twenty seventeen feels like it was almost a lifetime ago, it's not too late under Virginia law to hold those men accountable. To date, twelve men who marched that night have been charged under a Virginia law that makes it a felony to burn an object with the intent to intimidate. Five have pleaded guilty to it, three have entered into pleagre reamons to the lesser charge of disorderly conduct, one went to trial and got a

hung jury, and two cases remained pending. The first sentence handed down in one of these cases was for Tyler Bradley Dikes. His story touches on quite a few of the recurring themes of this show. He was a US Marine who was discharged for his involvement in extremist groups. He attended this Nazi rally where he's on video, throwing punches and Hitler salutes, and when he wasn't held accountable for his actions, he went on to engage an even

more serious conduct, and now he's in federal prison. The entire arc of his story can be summed up in a single pair of images, I think like a pair of Nazi bookends. First, there's Tyler Dikes on August eleventh, twenty seventeen, standing at the base of the statue of Thomas Jefferson, holding a torch in his left hand, with

his right arm extended in a Nazi salute. And then there's Tyler Dykes again on January sixth, twenty twenty one, on the steps of the Capitol Building, turning to face the mob below after fighting his way up to the doors, giving the same salute. A few months ago, Tyler Dykes was handed a fifty seven month federal sentence for assaulting police officers during the January sixth riot at the Capitol in twenty twenty one. If you're trying to do some math in your head right now, I'll tell you fifty

seven months is just shy of five years. But a federal prison sentence is kind of like a baby in that you always measure it in months, not years, and only the people who have to deal with the time in question feel like that makes any sense at all. In the sentencing memorandum written by his defense attorney, he's just decribed as an impressionable young man. He was just twenty one years old when he traveled to Washington, d C.

With his friends from church. They said he'd been influenced by the NonStop media coverage and President Trump's social media posts into believing that the election had been stolen. He made incredibly poor decisions. His attorney conceded, but he never planned to engage in any violence. He was just young and impetuous, and he got caught up in the crowd. He was a United States Marine. He was a boy scout, quite literally. The defense sentencing memo cites his accomplishments as

an Eagle Scout. He was just a nice young man who goes to church every Sunday and runs a small IT services company and takes care of his elderly parents. How could he possibly be the kind of person who deserves to go to federal prison for making a little mistake. But that wasn't quite the whole picture. Not that those things aren't mostly true. They are, but it's a spit shined image of a much darker situation. Tyler Dykes was

indeed a member of the United States Marine Corps. On January sixth, twenty twenty one, he was a US Marine when he wrenched the riot shield from the hands of a US Capitol police officer and then used that shield to force his way through the police line and into the Capitol building. And he remained a United States Marine until he was given an other than honorable discharge in twenty twenty two. The revelations that unraveled his life came

out of order. He wasn't identified as a Unite the Right attendee until twenty twenty two, after he'd already participated in the January sixth riot in twenty twenty one. He wasn't identified as the man putting swastika stickers around town in twenty twenty until he was discharged from the Marines for it in twenty twenty two, and he wasn't identified as a participant in the January sixth riot until July of twenty twenty three, after he'd been convicted for his

conduct at Unite the Right. The consequences of his actions always seemed to come a little too late, after he'd already been emboldened by an apparent lack thereof. At his federal sentencing hearing a few months ago, he told the judge that he was high on adrenaline during the Capitol riot and said, I falsely believed that I would be free of consequences. But maybe we should start at the beginning rather than the end. In August of twenty seventeen,

Tyler Dykes was nineteen years old. He'd taken a year off after high school and was living at home home with his parents in North Carolina that summer after spending his gap year abroad in Romania. He'd been accepted to Cornell University and would be moving into his dorm at the end of the month. Just a week before new student orientation at Cornell, he took one last trip before starting college. He came here to Charlottesville on the evening

of August eleventh, twenty seventeen. Tyler Dyke stood among the hundreds of men who gathered at Nameless Field. It's a confusing name, Nameless Field. It isn't nameless. It has a name. The name is nameless Field. I wonder what kind of who's on first type conversations happened over text message that night as the crowd assembled. But there he was in the field, down by the tennis courts behind the library, and he was handed a torch, and he found a

place in line, and he marched. He chanted with the crowd as this river of flames wound its way through the university grounds. Blood and soil, Blood and soil. You will not replace us, Jews will not replace us. Fuck off, commis this is our town now, they shouted on the empty streets as they passed empty buildings. Blood and soil,

blood and soil, blood and soil. They chanted until they could taste the blood in their own mouths from shouting themselves hoarse, blood and soil, until they saw blood red. When the small group of students at the base of the Thomas Jefferson Statue came into view, the streets had been empty until the march filled them. The libraries were empty, the dorms were empty. The academic and administrative buildings were empty.

But as the march reached the top of the rotunda steps, looking down into the brick plaza below, they knew they weren't alone anymore. They knew what they were doing. As they came down those steps, each man, torch in hand,

had a moment. At the top of those stairs, each marcher could see from that vantage point the tiny group in the plaza below, students, many of them still just teenagers, holding a home made banner that read UVA Students Against White Supremacy, And in that moment on those steps, each of them made the choice to follow the man in front of him. As the march wound its way around the statue, around the students, circling around, arching wide and

then tightening up, encircling them and closing them in. As the ring of fire closed around the statue around those students, the violence began almost immediately. Verbal altercations gave way to fists shouted epithets were chased through the air by streams of pepper spray. A lit torch was swung, making contact with a counter protester trying to shield those terrified young people. I've watched this video a hundred times, a thousand, maybe, and I still flinch as the flame arcs towards someone

that I count among my closest friends. I tell you that not to pull at your heart strings. You don't need to know that that video still makes my chest feel tight. I'm telling you because I want you to know. I'm not objective about this. I don't pretend to be. I don't want to be. I don't believe in this myth of journalistic objectivity. Everybody has a thumb on the scale somewhere. Most people just lie about it to you or even to themselves. Of course, I have a bias here.

I live here. I've sat in courtrooms and in coffee shops, and on long car rides and on living room couches with people who are hurt that night. But even if I had no connection to these people or to this place, no secret that as a researcher of white supremacist violence in America, my starting position is always against fascism, against Nazism, against violence done in the name of white supremacy. And

I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of. As sociologist and expert on political violence, doctor Peter Seemi, once set on the stand, no one is ever surprised to find out that a cancer researcher is interested in preventing cancer. So yes, I have a stake in this, But you do too. Maybe you don't know it yet, you don't know these people. But I choose to betray my own lack of objectivity here to get you to think about yours, because I don't think you should be objective about this.

There is no special prize to be won by being the most diligently neutral observer of fascist violence. You and I, listener, We are not jurors. We are not ruling on the law. We are people who have to live in this world. You should feel something you can't shove down when you see a man who proudly calls himself a Nazi. Swing a flaming torch at someone who is trapped, someone whose only crime is not wanting hate to go unchallenged in a public square. And that's where Tyler Diykes was that night,

right at the center of this melee. As the air filled with screams and the burning scent of pepper spray, Tyler Diykes was fist fighting anyone he could reach. Videos showed Dikes was the last one still fighting. He threw the last punch of the night, even as everyone else seemed to be coming to their senses. When the counter protesters were finally able to escape from the mob, the torch marchers took the statue. Several of them climbed the plinth and cheered for the victory they'd won. Seeg Kile

Hail victory they shouted. Video shows Tyler Dikes pacing back and forth in front of the statue, right arm extended in a Nazi salute. After the deadly rally, the next morning, Tyler Diykes went home. He started at Cornell a few weeks later, but they didn't go well. He dropped out after a few months and enlisted in the Marines instead, and it seems like that may not have gone well either.

After a few months of training, he was discharged to the Reserves and returned home, which was now South Carolina. He started an IT company, calling himself the Technology King of the Low Country, and made house calls to help suburban grandparents set up their Wi Fi routers. And when he wasn't troubleshooting a customer's computer or going to church, he was hanging Swastika banners from highway overpasses with his friends in the Southern Sons Active Club, a white supremacist

organization operating in Georgia and the Carolinas. A regional cell of the larger international network of Active Clubs. These Active clubs are, to put it succinctly, Nazi fight clubs. They were inspired by Robert Rundo's Rise Above movement, the Southern California based Nazi street fighting outfit that brawled their way across the country at right wing political rallies throughout twenty seventeen. There's no centralized leadership or organizational structure. Active clubs operate

regionally and are operationally independent from one another. They share a love of mixed martial arts. Both as a hobby and as training for a coming race war, and engage in the kind of propaganda campaigns common among groups like Patriot Front, so hanging banners with racist slogans from bridges and plastering stickers on street signs and mailboxes around town. There are active clubs all over the United States, Canada, and Europe, as well as a faltering effort led by

Thomas Seole to get them going in Australia. Each club operates independently, but they network and meet up even across national borders, and there is quite a bit of cross pollination between the active clubs and other violent white supremacist organizations. They tend to be on good terms with groups like Patriot Front, and several notable active club members have ties

to Adam Waffen and Terogram. Andrew Takstov, the New Jersey teenager and Terogram collective chat member arrested this summer, was a member of an active club cell in New Jersey. Active clubs in Finland are involved in paramilitary training of Karelian separatist groups that fight alongside the Russian Volunteer Corps, the same Nazi paramilitary group in Ukraine that Andrew Takestov was on his way to join when he was arrested.

All that to say, this isn't just guys lifting weights together and talking about their love of the white race. Active Club members on multiple continents have been arrested for acts of violence and for planning acts of terrorism. And the reason I can tell you with an unusually high degree of certainty that Tyler Dykes was a member of the Southern Suns Active Club is because of one particular, no good, very bad day that he had on March seventeenth,

twenty twenty three. You see, Tyler Dykes was indicted by a grand jury in Virginia in February of twenty twenty three, but he didn't know that nobody did. Grand juries are secret things, and his indictment stayed sealed until he was taken into custody. And with an out of state warrant, you don't just send a local cop down to get him. You could, I suppose, but they didn't. The local prosecutor where the charge is filed can ask cops in the city where they think he lives to go look for him,

but they aren't always super interested in doing. Some out of town courts work for them. So oftentimes an out of state warrant just sort of sits open, waiting for you to step on it, like a rake on the ground. If you've ever been pulled over, you've seen a cop take your license and walk back to his car. He's putting your name into a computer, and if you have

an open warrant, he's going to find it. If you cross a border, or go through TSA, or get a speeding ticket, or have really almost any kind of interaction with a cop, they're going to run your name. And in Tyler Dyke's case, he was sitting in an emergency room in South Carolina making a police report about a dog bite. Saint Patrick's Day is a big deal in Savannah, Georgia. I'm not entirely sure why, and that wasn't a rabbit hole I let myself pursue this week, but it is.

I'm sure there's some particular moment in history where the city had an unusually high concentration of irishmen, and the only lasting legacy is the nation's second most debaucherous green beer soaked parade. I was in Savannah for Saint Patrick's Day in two thousand and eight, but there was a tornado that weekend and the blackout closed most of the bar,

so I don't think I got the full experience. And in twenty twenty three, the Southern Sun's Active Club had the brilliant idea that Saint Patrick's Day in Savannah would be the perfect time and the perfect place to hang a Nazi banner from a highway overpass, because all the extra traffic in town meant more people would see their message.

Thanks to an Atlanta based anti fascist research collective, we have an inside look at the private conversations Dykes and his friends had that day as they were going about trying to get that banner up. The day didn't start off well. The group had some trouble locating a good spot for their banner. They weren't the only ones who anticipated heavy traffic from tourists heading into town for the holiday. There were cops nearby several of the locations they'd hoped

to hit. When they finally found a suitable spot, Tyler Dikes walked back to his car to get the tools they would need to hang the banner, but before he got back to his car, he encountered someone walking their dogs. Diykes claims that he was mauled by three pit bulls, but that seems like a bit of an over statement. In the infiltrated group chat, he posted a photo of a small, but unpleasant looking wound on his left pinky finger.

I feel like you'd come away with more than a two inch cut on your little finger if you were truly attacked by even one dog, let alone three pit bulls. But we only have Tyler's word on this one. A little before six pm, he texted the Southern Son's group chat that he was headed to the hospital to have

his hand looked at. While he was waiting to be seen at the hospital, he texted the group chat again to let them know that the plan had gone awry and unfortunately they hadn't been able to hang any of the banners that day, writing quite literally, everything that could possibly have gone wrong all happened at exactly the same time. Half an hour later, though, something else went very wrong for Tyler Dikes, and he texted the group again, I'm

being arrested by Virginia nuke my account. Dog bites like gunshot wounds are something that hospital staff are required to report to the authorities. While Tyler Diykes was waiting for a doctor to look at his hand. An officer arrived to take a police report. And when you talk to a cop in some official capacity, he's going to run your name. I can't even imagine his surprise when the officer informed him that he was a wanted fugitive in

a state he hadn't visited in years. His hand was fine, it seems, and he was taken directly into custody from the emergency room that night. It took nearly a month to arrange for his extradition back to Virginia, during which time he remained in custody. When Tyler Diykes was finally transported up to Virginia, his attorney asked for a bond hearing. Makes sense. He'd been in custody for a month, and it was at that April twenty twenty three bond hearing

that I first saw Tyler Dikes. At that hearing, Tyler Dykes's father, Scott, took the stand to tell the judge that if his son was allowed to return home with him, he would ensure that his son stayed out of trouble, would return for all of his court hearings. And then the prosecutor handed Scott Dykes, A few pieces of paper? Is that your son? He asked. Scott Dykes was still staring down at the paper in his hands when he said, softly, reluctantly,

it looks like it could be. The pages in his hands were printed out stills from security camera footage showing a tall, dark haired young man putting up flyers with swastikas on them in Sumter, South Carolina. In November of twenty twenty. The prosecutor asked Scott Dikes if he knew why his son had been discharged from the Marines. He didn't know. Tyler had apparently not even told his parents

that he'd been given an other than honorable discharge. He didn't tell his parents that he'd been interviewed by an FBI agent from the Joint Terrorism Task Force in twenty nineteen, or that he was a suspect in the case of the Sumpter County swastika stickers in twenty twenty. The prosecutor didn't ask Scott Dikes where his son was on January sixth, twenty twenty one. Maybe he didn't know. He should have.

We know now that the FBI had been investigating Dikes's involvement in the insurrection since December of twenty twenty one, but they may not have shared that information with a county prosecutor. It was Dikes's own messages in the chat on the day of his arrest that left him in jail without bond. After that hearing mere hours before his arrest on Saint Patrick's day, he was demonstrating what they call consciousness of guilt. That is, behavior that shows you

knew what you were doing was wrong. His messages show that he had attempted to evade police in order to find an overpass, which he planned to use tools to damage for the purpose of unfurling a racist banner. Then, upon learning of his arrest, he demonstrated a willingness to destroy evidence, asking other members of the white supremacist group to erase his participation, to nuke his account and delete the chat so police couldn't read it on his phone

once it was checked into evidence. In his ruling denying bond, the judge told Dikes that day, this court can't believe you'll be on good behavior if released from custody. It was barely a month later that Tyler Diykes decided to plead guilty to the charge of burning an object with the intent to intimidate. The judge handed down a sentence of five years, the maximum under the statute, but suspended all but six months of it. I don't know if this is a common practice everywhere, but I see it

almost all the time here in Virginia. The judge gives you a much longer sentence then he actually expects you to serve, and you just serve that little bit of your sentence, but that suspended portion hangs over you like a sort of damocles that will fall if you get into any trouble during some set period of good behavior. With the time he'd already served before his extradition and credit for good behavior, he was scheduled to be released in July of twenty twenty three, just four months after

that terrible day in March. And here's where I wasted a whole day of my life. I was curious to see Tyler Diyke's walk out of the album Rall Charlesville Regional Jail. I can't explain now why I felt like that might be an interesting or important thing to see, and in retrospect it really wouldn't have been. But I knew his scheduled release date, and I live nearby. I wasn't busy that day, so I thought i'd try. I

got up early and drove to the jail. I packed snacks and drinks, and I was prepared to wait around for a couple of hours. I talked to a few people who'd been booked into ACRJ, and typically you get released sometime before lunch. But the hours passed and they kept passing. I finished all the snacks I brought got bored. It was hot as hell, and I didn't want to run my car all day just for the AC so

I just sat there, sweating, waiting. I watched that damn door like a hawk as the hours passed, and then I got an email. I have all sorts of automated email alerts set up related to court cases and custody status of weird little guys all over the country, some guys i'd just like to keep track of, or my right about one day, or I don't know, just nosy. So not a day goes by that I don't get some notification that somebody's filed emotion, or they're appealing something,

or they've been transferred to another facility. It's always something, and there it was a custody status change notification. I'd been sitting in the jail barking lot for seven hours waiting for a man who never did walk out the front door. This email is to inform you that Tyler Diykes with a fender number one zero six five one six' three, three was released from custody On july, seventeenth twenty twenty. Three the release reason is other law enforcement, agency other

law enforcement. Agency usually the email says bonded out or sentence, served but this one said other law enforcement. Agency that means he wasn't released at. All that means some kind of cop from somewhere else picked him. Up he never walked out the front door because he'd been driven out the side entrance in a nondescript LOOKING suv with A

Us marshal at the. WHEEL i had to wait until the following morning for the federal charging documents to show up in the, System so it wasn't Until july of twenty twenty three THAT i finally knew what THE fbi had known for a year and a. Half Tyler dikes fought his way into The capitol On january, sixth twenty twenty, one he was charged in a ten count indictment with, robbery civil, disorder two counts of, assaulting resisting or impeding

an officer with a dangerous, weapon entering or remaining in a restricted, building disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted, building engaging in physical violence in a restricted, building disorderly conduct and a capitol, building engaging in physical violence in

a capitol, building and picketing in a capitol. Building he was released on bond shortly after being transferred into federal, custody and in addition to the standard rules of pre trial, release the judge specifically mandated that he have no contact with members of The Southern Sons Active club or any related group while out on, bond and he was ordered to live at his parents' home and keep to a strict.

Curfew In april of twenty twenty, four he accepted a plea agreement that dropped eight of the ten charges of the, indictment pleading guilty only to the two counts of, assaulting, resisting or impeding certain, officers and with the dangerous weapon element dropped with no. Trial some questions about this case will probably never get. Answered In december of twenty twenty, one THE fbi received an anonymous tip from someone who Said dikes told them he had entered the capitol On january.

Sixth the full text of the tip is printed in a filing by the. Government the suspect Is Tyler diykes lives In, Bluffton South. CAROLINA i was With dikes and we started talking about The january sixth. Attack we had differing opinions about, it but was. Respectful he then told me about how he went into the capitol with a mask on with the other rioters and started beating up police. Officers he states he was still in the military at the.

Time he said he has video evidence of him being, there but he did not show me since we were in a public. Setting he was there for fund and wanting to make a. Statement he was there with other group of, people but would not state. WHO i believe he was telling the truth about, it AND i believe

he needs to be. Investigated the agent assigned to investigate the tip confirmed the sources identification Of dikes through typical investigative means things like issuing a subpoena to his cell phone, provider comparing footage from the capitol to the, SUSPECTS dmv photo and so. On but he had an extra source this, time something AN fbi agent doesn't usually have at his disposal when he investigates an anonymous tip like. This he already knew What Tyler dikes looked. Like he had Met

Tyler dikes. Before the agent assigned to follow up on this tip was the one who had Interviewed dikes In january of twenty nineteen regarding his potential ties to domestic extremist.

Groups no additional information was offered in this affidavit about the circumstances that prompted their first, meeting whether any follow up investigation was, done or if that investigation was at the request of or reported to The Marine, corps or even which extremist group THE fbi believed he was involved in in twenty, nineteen because it couldn't have been The Southern Sun's Active. Club The Active club network didn't really exist that early, on back In january of twenty, nineteen

and The Southern suns chapter certainly. Didn't the agent doesn't give me even a crumb to work with, here SO i don't, know and whatever it was about that wasn't what led To dykes's discharge from The. Marines the military records filed in this case are, sealed but references made to them specifically cite Those november twenty twenty swastika flyers In Sumter, County South carolina as the reason for his.

Discharge and that's as much creed information as we're likely ever going to get about the reason for his removal from the. Military in a text found on his phone after his, Arrest dykes had sent a photo of his discharged letter to Someone he claimed he was being discharged quote for being incredibly political with my Fellow marines after the twenty twenty, election incredibly. Political when he was interviewed by the probation office for the pre sentenced investigation report

in his federal criminal, case he. Lied he told the probation office that he was asked to leave the military after not reporting for, drill and that wasn't the only time he. Lied the government sentencing memorandum also indicates that despite his willingness to plead guilty to the charges to be honest about his conduct on that, day he was not tr truthful in his final interview with federal. Agents the terms of his plea agreement required his cooperation with

the ongoing investigation into the events Of january. Sixth part of that agreement was a final debrief interview with federal, agents which was conducted On june twenty, eighth twenty twenty. Four in that, Interview dykes again told agents that he left his home In South carolina mid morning On january fifth and arrived IN dc that evening sometime after, dark but early enough to have dinner with his friends before checking into his hotel for the. Night and that's not

true because his cell phone tells a very different. Story records obtained From verizon show that his phone was In, Marathon, florida at three twenty pm On january. Fifth a little before eight, pm he took a photo with his cell phone of a slip printed by An American airlines kiosk at The Miami, airport indicating that he would need to see a ticket agent for. Assistance his phone pinged again an hour outside his home In South carolina at twelve thirty a. M On january. Sixth no clear conclusion is

drawn in the. Memo the prosecutor doesn't ride out exactly what he thinks this, means but it appears That dykes drove thirteen hundred miles from The Florida keys To, washington D. C overnight after unsuccessfully trying to board a flight In. Miami it would be very hard to forget driving for twenty hours and then immediately fighting your way inside The United States capitol even three years after the. Fact that's

not something you'd, forget is. It it seems far more likely that he chose to conceal his activities in the lead up To january, Sixth but why it seems unlikely now that THE doj would choose to pursue additional, Charges although, remember it is a federal crime to lie to AN fbi, agent and it obviously wasn't something they cared enough about to ask the judge to reject the plea, agreement which

they could. Have whatever he was hiding about his trip To florida the day before the, insurrection he must have felt like it was worth the possibility of a lot of extra prison time to keep it to. Himself the government sentencing memo also details some of what was found On dike's. Phone in The Southern suns group, chat he used the Name Nocturnal. Wolf the prosecutor who prepared the memo included several examples of materials found on the phone

related to the pseudonym things About. Wolves one of those little odds and ends about wolves was the front cover of A terogram collective publication called Do it for The, gram which bears the phrase faceless Lone. Wolf the prosecutor makes no mention of the contents of the document or the fact that it is a three hundred page manual on how to commit varying acts of. Terrorism it seems he was perhaps unaware that he'd stumbled across a piece

of Neo nazi terrorist. Propaganda there's no transcript of his sentencing filed in the, case but NBC's RYAN. J riley reported that Quote dykes did not distance himself from extremist, ideologies nor did he say he no longer believes the former president's lies about the. Election his biggest expression of regret seemed to be for his elderly, parents who adopted him as a child and who are still providing him

with a monthly. Allowance diykes was given a few months to get his affairs in order after being sentenced to fifty seven months back In. July the day before he was scheduled to turn himself in to begin serving his. Sentence he filed a last minute motion asking for just one more. Month the reasons he gave were a series of doctor's appointments that he needed to drive his eighty six year old father. To the judge was unimpressed By dikes's desire to drive his dad to the gastro enrologist

and denied the. Motion he reported to prison last week On october, ninth twenty twenty. Four if you don't have any disciplinary, issues you typically serve eighty five percent of federal, time so he could be released as early As october of twenty twenty, eight just in time for the next presidential. Election Weird Little guys is a production Of Cool Zone media And. iHeartRadio it's, researched written and recorded by, Me Molly.

Conger our executive producers Are Sophie lichterman And Robert. Evans the show is edited by the wildly Talented Rory. Gagan the theme music was composed By Brad. Dickard you can email me At Weird Little Guys podcast at gmail dot. COM i will definitely read, it BUT i almost certainly will not answer. It it's nothing. PERSONAL i don't answer any of my. Emails you can exchange conspiracy theories about the show with other listeners on The Weird Little guys.

Subreddit just don't post anything that's going to make you one of My Weird Little guys