A former U.S. military contractor who ran an online antisemitic show and participated in the January 6th riot at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., has had two charges against him dropped.
A grand jury handed up an indictment against Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 31, that includes two fewer charges than he was originally slapped with, the Asbury Park Press reported.
Hale-Cusanelli was at first facing seven counts for his participation in the January 6th riot. He was charged with civil disorder; aiding and abetting the obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; impeding ingress and egress in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
However, the first two counts appear to have been dropped by the grand jury, as they do not appear in the superseding indictment handed down last week.
Prosecutors have noted that Hale-Cusanelli is an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer. Hale-Cusanelli remains in custody after he was determined to be a threat to people, including Orthodox Jews in Lakewood.
Hale-Cusanelli ran a now-defunct YouTube channel called Based Hermes that spouted antisemitic and white supremacist theories and ideology before being shut down. In one of his videos, shot in April 2020, Hale-Cusanelli railed against Lakewood’s Orthodox Jews, blaming them for the high number of Covid-19 cases in the township and decrying the community’s rapid growth.
