NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A white supremacist leader from California known as “King ov Wrath” was sentenced on Friday to 44 months imprisonment for conspiring to make death threats against a Brooklyn journalist who was reporting on his Neo-Nazi group, the Department of Justice announced.
Nicholas Welker, 33, is the leader of Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), a Neo-Nazi hate group. The group’s name translates to “War Fire.”
Court filings show that Welker posted a threat to a public forum that included a photograph of the journalist with a gun aimed at his head and the words “Race Traitor” written over his eyes.
The threat also stated “JOURNALIST F[***] OFF! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED,” while naming the journalist and his employer by name, prosecutors said. Two under-aged FKD members tagged the journalist in the threat on X so that he would see it.
Welker, of San Jose, intended to scare the journalist out of reporting on his group when the threat was posted in August 2021.
“Welker tried to silence a journalist from reporting on his white supremacist group so that his fellow extremists could continue to commit violence against racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said.
“Today’s sentence demonstrates that we will stand up for them and other journalists who bravely report on these violent hate groups,” Peace added.
The defendant’s sentence comes after he pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to make interstate threats.
According to the DOJ, FKD has domestic and international members who have a goal of challenging laws, social order, and the government via terrorism and other violent acts. The group encourages attacks on racial minorities, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ+ community, the U.S. government, journalists and critical infrastructure.
FKD derives from Atomwaffen, which law enforcement considers one of the most violent extremist groups in the country.