Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump’s FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals

An international neo-Nazi terrorist group with origins in the US appears to be quickly rebuilding its global and stateside ranks, according to information obtained by the Guardian from its digital accounts.

Founded in 2018, the Base has been the intense focus of a years-long FBI counter-terrorism investigation that has resulted in more than a dozen of its members arrested. It has plotted an assassination, mass shootings and other actions in Europe, which made it a proscribed terrorist organization in several countries.

By 2022, it seemed to disappear. Yet its founder and leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, a former US special forces contractor residing in Russia, used the safety of Russian apps before the November election to recruit and reorganize during a tense political moment. At one point, he even solicited ex-American soldiers with an offer of $1,200 a month to put members through paramilitary training somewhere in the Pacific north-west.

The Base’s regrouping comes at a time when the Trump administration has made it a policy goal to move away from policing far-right extremism and during the appointment of Kash Patel – a Maga acolyte who lauds January 6 attackers and has peddled Qanon conspiracy theories – to helm the FBI. Experts say federal law enforcement ignoring far-right groups such as the Base could expose Americans to increased domestic terror threats.

“I think groups like the Base, far-right extremist groups that are strategic, have been waiting for the right opportunity before reinvigorating their respective organizations,” Colin Clarke, a terrorism expert and director of research at the Soufan Center, said, adding that it’s expected that Patel will direct counter-terrorism assets towards leftwing organizations. “This means that far-right extremist groups likely perceive the re-election of Trump as a green light to rebuild without fear of arrest or prosecution.”

Suspicions have surrounded Nazzaro and his connections to Russian intelligence agencies. Living now as a semi-defected American in Saint Petersburg, his work with US special forces during the war on terror meant he had a top secret clearance while fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. But only a few years after that work, he would found a neo-Nazi terrorist group of his own that sees the US government as the enemy.