The part-time resident of Katy, a city of some 22,000 people roughly 30 miles west of Houston, had suggested attacking a power grid, court documents show. His Ohio-based co-conspirator agreed.
They reasoned that at the very least, a successful attempt on grids could plunge the country into chaos and knock out power for months, costing the government millions. It might also trigger an all-out race war or the “next Great Depression,” tilling the soil for a rise in white leaders, court documents show.
But in August 2020, the FBI would catch up with 24-year-old Frost and two others, each of whom was from a different state. In Frost’s home, the feds found weapons and ammo and bomb-making supplies. They also uncovered violent neo-Nazi propaganda, including books and videos, and detailed information on the nation’s power infrastructure, documents say.
On Wednesday, the trio pleaded guilty to crimes linked to a scheme targeting power grids across the country, which the Justice Department notes was “in furtherance of white supremacist ideology.” Each defendant faces up to 15 years in prison.
This isn’t the first alleged plot to destroy the nation’s power supply. White nationalists, antigovernment extremists and militia members have set their sights on the country's critical infrastructure as a way to upend order and sow chaos.
In 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up a government building in Oklahoma, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Four years later, a militia coalition leader was charged with plotting to destroy power facilities in Georgia and Florida.
Meanwhile, members of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division have similarly talked of blowing up parts of the energy grid.
Even though such plans often go unexecuted, extremism experts are sounding the alarm that competent criminals could someday succeed in their goals.
Frost and two others — Christopher Brenner Cook of Columbus, Ohio, and his friend, Wisconsin’s Jackson Matthew Sawall — were dedicated to the cause, according to the Justice Department. They agreed to swallow a “suicide necklace” filled with fentanyl if caught by law enforcement.
They met in Ohio in February 2020 to hammer out logistics, documents say. There, Frost handed Cook an AR-47 rifle with no serial number for use in their plan, and they went to a shooting range to train.
Cook, 20, and Sawall, 22, took Frost on a tour of freshly painted graffiti under a park bridge, according to court documents. Frost took a photo of his two comrades and their spray-painted swastika flag. They'd also written an entreaty: “Join The Front.”
“The Front” was the name of the men’s online propaganda chat group, which hosted a subgroup titled “Lights Out.” There, they allegedly plotted how to carry out their mission, and it was decided that Frost would take down the power in the Southwest, while Cook and Sawall were responsible for the Northeast and Midwest, respectively. (Two other recruits, one of whom was a juvenile, would attack the Southeast and Northwest.)“Thank God they were completely incapable of doing what they were doing." – Heidi Beirich, extremism expert
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In that chat group, the feds claim Frost wrote that an explosion could serve as a good distraction while they shot up substation transformers with powerful rifles. Cook suggested using a propane tank.
“THINK BIG,” Frost wrote, according to documents. “We can delay police response by an additional 5-10 minutes if our distraction plans succeed.”
In Columbus, officials say, the three had also intended to vandalize a mosque and cut down a telephone pole but were thwarted after a traffic stop. Thinking that it was the end of the line, Sawall ingested the fentanyl pill but survived.
From there, Cook and Frost headed to Texas to ramp up recruitment efforts and continue outlining their attack, according to documents. Once in Katy, the two split after another police encounter; Cook trekked more than 160 miles northeast to Jasper, where he would stay with a juvenile recruit.
Then, in August 2020, the FBI searched each of the alleged schemers’ residences.
But Frost’s attorney, Samuel Shamansky, said it’s important to recognize that as with all press releases, the Justice Department’s narrative outlining the guilty pleas is promotional material. The reality of the case is far more nuanced and complicated than what the government has trumpeted, he said.
Shamansky argued that the press release fails to note Frost’s level of remorse and rehabilitation efforts, as well as his commitment to remedy his past and “very regrettable misbehavior.”
“We have an outstanding and experienced jurist assigned to this matter who will follow the law and render a just and appropriate sentence,” he added.
For years, there have been attempts by white supremacist and antigovernment extremists to attack major power installations, said Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Certain extremists have attempted to provoke an insurrection by disrupting electrical substations.
White supremacists also seek widespread disturbance to other services, such as water and sewage, Beirich said. These three had “fantastical ideas” that they believed would incite a race war and bring about their ideal ethnostate.
The plan would certainly be difficult to pull off, Beirich added. “Thank God they were completely incapable of doing what they were doing,” she said. “It [the plot] was kind of a joke, but still a scary joke.”
