White supremacist pleads guilty to multiple “swatting” incidents

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John Cameron Denton, a founding member of the neo-Nazi group the Atomwaffen Division, has pled guilty to participating in several "swatting" incidents that occurred in 2018 and 2019, the US government announced on Tuesday. Swatting is a dangerous hoax that involves calling the police in an effort to get a SWAT team dispatched to a victim's home.

Pro Publica first unmasked Denton as a leader of the Atomwaffen Division in a 2018 story linking the group to the murder of a gay Jewish college student. Pro Publica described the group as "a white supremacist group that celebrates both Hitler and Charles Manson." The group "embraces Third Reich ideology and preaches hatred of minorities, gays, and Jews." Pro Publica says that the group has conducted in-person weapons training in several locations around the US, and people associated with the group have been charged in five murders.

John Cameron Denton. (credit: Via Pro Publica)

According to the FBI, Denton was furious about Pro Publica's story and arranged the swatting of both Pro Publica's offices and the home of a Pro Publica reporter in retaliation.

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