Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The trial for Nathan Weeden on charges of conspiracy against rights and damage to religious property for his vandalism of Temple Jacob in Hancock took place in the U.S. District Courthouse in Marquette this week. A guilty verdict was handed down Thursday.

MARQUETTE — The federal trial of a Hancock man accused of spraypainting anti-Semitic graffiti on Temple Jacob continued Tuesday with witnesses including agents who had interviewed him and a former member of the same white supremacist group who’d been part of the discussions before defacing a Wisconsin synagogue.

The trial of Nathan Weeden, 23, began Monday in U.S. District Court in Marquette. He was arrested in June for his alleged role in the 2019 incident, done while he was a student at Michigan Technological University. He is charged with one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of damage to religious property. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Weeden and participants in similar incidents were members of The Base, a multistate white supremacist group that sought to accelerate what it termed impending civilizational collapse. The September 2019 acts came as part of what the group dubbed “Operation Kristallnacht,” in reference to a wave of 1938 Nazi violence that included murders of numerous Jewish people and the destruction of Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses.

Wisconsin resident Yousef Barasneh, a former member of The Base and fellow member of the Midwest cell with Weeden, testified for the prosecution about the group’s activities and his correspondence with Weeden before and after the incident.

As part of the same campaign, Barasneh defaced the synagogue in Racine, Wisconsin. He pleaded guilty in July 2020 and is out on bond awaiting sentencing.

The two had been involved with group chats including Base founder Rinaldo Nazzaro and Richard Tobin, who offered suggestions. Tobin, the New Jersey resident who sent the message directing the attacks, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison in 2021.

Tobin called for actions between Sept. 20 and Sept. 30, which he said would be “the first of many steps on the path to victory.” He also directed them to focus on “broad anti-white elements,” such as Jewish and black churches and businesses. He left the targets at the discretion of each member.

Nazzaro added additional advice, such as “Don’t forget spraypaint.” Tobin recommended adding the Base logo.

A group chat consisted of about 50 members, while a smaller number were part of a splinter chat planning the upcoming vandalism.

The group had no set leadership structure, with members concealing their real names. Weeden operated under the alias “Kolchak,” after a Russian general who fought on the side of the imperialists during the Russian Civil War.

Members gave reminders to “take it to the side room” when discussions of Operation Kristallnacht became too detailed. Discussion in the side group was set to erase after a certain period.

In the main group, Weeden approvingly posted a link to an article about arson at a Duluth synagogue, adding “Midwest gang gotta step it up,” Barasneh said.

Several times, Weeden’s attorney, Heath Lynch, pointed out the lack of visible time stamps on the chats, saying he wanted more certainty about when the chats purportedly took place. It was also not clear which parts of the chat Weeden may or may not have read, he said.

Barasneh pointed out Weeden in the courtroom. Lynch reminded Barasneh he had only met Weeden once, and asked why he had more certainty now than when he was unsure about identifying Weeden from a photograph after his arrest more than three-and-a-half years ago.

“Those are pictures, this is real life,” Barasneh said.

On the night of Sept. 20, Weeden switched off location detection on his phone, said Aaron Erkkinen, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit field office. However, the phone’s Health app still logged his steps — 5,413 steps between 11:25 p.m. and 12:55 a.m., about the distance of a walk between Michigan Technological University and Temple Jacob on foot.

A screenshot of the group chat after the Temple Jacob vandalism showed a link to an article about the graffiti, followed by Weeden’s comment: “I did! Went good! Got articles written!”

Barasneh took the text to indicate “that Kolchak had done something in real life and got articles written about it.”

The Temple Jacob graffiti included several anti-Semitic symbols and messages, including a swastika. Barasneh noted Weeden had made a mistake in his attempt to spray the Base’s logo. Instead of using a Norse character in triplicate, he repeated the logo of the Nazi SS.

“He laughed it off,” Barasneh said.

The two also met in person along with other members at a shooting range in Wisconsin’s Wood County several months before the vandalism. Weeden had given Barasneh a Worid War II-era Russian rifle, later instructing him to sell it off at a gun show so he could purchase an AR-15.

Weeden had also checked in a gun of the same description on campus, in accordance with Tech policy, said Reid DeVoge, deputy director and chief of police at MTU Public Safety.

Weeden was a student at Michigan Technological University when he became interested in The Base.

He got the attention of organizers by placing stickers advertising The Base throughout campus and the town, which included a QR code linking to a recruitment video. In a later phone call inviting him to join The Base, Nazzaro complimented Weeden on his “lightning speed” in putting posters up, telling him he “passed the test with flying colors.”

Prosecutors played audio from Weeden’s call with Base organizers, recorded by a freelance journalist posing as a white supremacist. FBI agents testifying Monday identified Weeden based on police interviews, and Nazzaro based on vocal similarities to his appearances on podcasts and other outlets.

In the phone call with Base organizers, Weeden said he had become interested from his time on the meme site iFunny, where he said users had pushed anti-Semitic content that had radicalized himself and others. From there, he had begun reading “The Turner Diaries” and other white supremacist novels, he said.

Because of the requirement to prove motive, the government also introduced what they termed more evidence of bias on Weeden’s part. Items retrieved from his phone included photos of The Base flyers, memes including Hitler, and a flow chart for preparing what he called “The big luau,” a slang term for another American civil war, Erkkinen said. The chart was marked “Love, Kolchak.”

Erkkinen conducted a two-and-a-half-hour interview with Weeden, whom he described as “particularly difficult.” While frequently qualifying his answers or couching them in hypotheticals, he did not deny the Temple Jacob vandalism, Erkkinen said.

The trial is set to continue at 8:30 a.m. with more testimony from Erkkinen. The prosecution plans to call another witness Wednesday before resting.

Judge Robert Jonker told the jury the case will go to them as soon as Wednesday, and no later than Thursday.