A New Hampshire man who was involved in the violent 2017 “Unite The Right” rally in Virginia was charged Thursday with threatening a person using the online messaging app Telegram, authorities said.
Christopher Cantwell, 39, was taken into custody and indicted on two counts, extortion over interstate communications and threatening interstate communications, according to the FBI’s Boston field office.
The indictment alleges that Cantwell threatened a man to get the personal identifying information of a second man with whom he was feuding. He allegedly told the victim over Telegram that if he didn’t hand over the information he would attack his wife.
“So if you don’t want me to come and f— your wife in front of your kids, then you should make yourself scarce[.],” Cantwell texted the victim, the indictment says.
He was set to be arraigned Thursday afternoon at a federal court in New Hampshire. Cantwell did not return a request for comment.
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Cantwell became one of the most familiar faces of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville after he was featured in a Vice News documentary on the far-right that showed him chanting “Jews will not replace us.”
He pleaded guilty to assault after he was accused of using pepper spray against two counterprotesters during a torchlit march at the University of Virginia the night before the rally.
The next day, one woman was killed and dozens were injured when a white supremacist plowed into a crowd of people protesting the event. The driver, James Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio, was sentenced to two life terms.
He earned the nickname the “crying Nazi” after posting an emotional video when a warrant was issued for his arrest following the rally.
Cantwell’s latest arrest comes just days after he threatened an attorney involved in a lawsuit against him and other members of the Charlottesville rally.
According to court filings, Cantwell threatened attorney Roberta Kaplan on Telegram saying, “After this stupid kike whore loses this fraudulent lawsuit, we’re going to have a lot of f—— fun with her.”
In a court filing this week, Cantwell also quoted Adolf Hitler’s 1925 book, “Mein Kampf.”
The suit was brought by the nonprofit group Integrity First for America, whose spokeswoman released a statement condemning Cantwell in the wake of his latest arrest.
“Today’s indictment describes only a tiny fraction of Cantwell’s horrifying track record of violence and bigotry,” the spokeswoman, Amy Spitalnick, said.
Rich Schapiro contributed.