Updated| Days ago it was reported that 21-year-old Nolan Brewer of Eminence, IN had been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a federal hate crime. Brewer, a white supremacist, and his wife vandalized a Carmel synagogue in July 2018 by spray painting a swastika flag and two iron crosses on the property.

The pair originally intended on damaging the building with “Drano bombs,” but settled on burning the ground with homemade napalm.

FBI agents, who obtained a search warrant for Brewer’s vehicle, found spray paint, Drano, and other supplies still in his trunk. His phone also contained evidence of the crime, including photos of the attack:

Brewer quickly confessed to the crime while being interviewed by the FBI. He admitted that supplies he purchased at Walmart were for homemade napalm, and that the purpose was to make headlines and intimidate Jewish people.

He claimed that, the entire time, he and his wife Kiyomi had been guided and encouraged by a European white supremacist who went by “Asbestos Peter” in Discord. Peter is allegedly from Romania, and, according to Brewer, handpicked the Carmel synagogue and instructed him on how to vandalize it.

When one of the agents asked “So ultimately what’s the purpose of doing this?”, Brewer replied “Just to have symbolism, make a headline.” Brewer explained Peter’s rationale by saying this synagogue was “full of ethnic Jews” and that “being a religious Jew wasn’t the deal for Hitler it was the ethnic Jews.”

In addition to his connection with his mysterious instigator, “Asbestos Peter,” Brewer revealed his and his wife’s membership in Identity Evropa (“IE”), the recently renamed white power group headed by Patrick Casey. Brewer told the agents that he and his wife “had a dinner with a bunch, with a lovely couple from a group called Identity Europa.”

Brewer identified the couple as Sarah and Douglas, and said Sarah goes by “Volkmom” on Discord.

In the official Identity Evropa Discord channel, Volkmom wrote that she homeschools her children and has “experience so far with sifting thru poz and finding good books” — “poz” meaning the prevailing attitude in a liberal society that everything “degenerate” should be accepted. Volkmom added that she would have her kids study March of the Titans: A History of the White Race by BNP and National Alliance affiliate Arthur Kemp.

When asked if he went to “any of those type of events” — meaning “Unite the Right” or similar rallies — Brewer replied that he did not. He told the agents, “Identity Evropa said you can’t, we’re not allowing any of our members to go to the Unite the Right 2 so instead we went and with a bunch of Identity Evropa members to dinner.”

Later in the interview, an agent asked Brewer whether he and his wife were “paying dues to IE like to join or just hav[ing] the dinner to learn about it?” Brewer responded that they were “new members” and had paid a “one hundred dollar money order” to join. When asked if he and his wife were “now members with IE,” Brewer answered in the affirmative.

In other words, Brewer and his wife paid dues to IE, went to IE gatherings, held themselves out to be members, and were dissuaded by the group’s leadership from attending Jason Kessler’s anemic UTR2 rally in Washington, D.C. Brewer described IE as an “identitarian movement” whose members are “proud” to be European. But this description belies the racial hatred at IE’s core.

A meme shared by Nolan Brewer. A meme shared by Nolan Brewer.

IE is, after all, the same organization that was founded by a violent felon who robbed a cab driver at gunpoint. It was then headed by a self-proclaimed military veteran who lied about massacring civilians while deployed to Iraq. Its members apparently included the likes of Taylor Wilson, who attempted to derail an Amtrak train and marched with the IE flag in Charlottesville, and “tradwife” Ayla Stewart.

And now we can officially count among its ranks an open Neo-Nazi who defaced a synagogue in order to terrorize Jewish people, and considered doing much worse. (Brewer conceded that he wanted to detonate a “Drano bomb” inside the building but was spooked by security cameras.) If nothing else, this incident should once again serve as a reminder that IE is not some benign advocacy group.

It is a violent hate group seeking to radicalize people just like Nolan Brewer. Next time its members might do far, far worse.

H/T Emily Gorcenski.

This article has been updated to include a direct admission by Brewer that he and his wife considered themselves dues-paying members of IE.