RALEIGH, N.C. — Jordan Duncan was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina when he joined a group organized by a fellow U.S. Marine who used a neo-Nazi internet forum to recruit members for what he called “a modern day SS,” according to a federal indictment.
After separating from the Marines in 2018 and moving to Idaho in September, Duncan discussed the shooting of protesters with a group member who had been lurking around Black Lives Matter rallies in Boise, the indictment says. Less than a month later, FBI agents notified two BLM movement co-founders that their names were on a list kept by a different paramilitary group member.
A federal magistrate judge refused Thursday to release Duncan from custody after hearing a prosecutor describe the former Marine as a potentially violent man whose parents didn’t know about his white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideology.
“You effectively hid this side of your life,” Judge James Gates concluded.
Duncan, 26, is one of four men charged with plotting to illegally sell and manufacture guns. Their Nov. 18 indictment includes a transcript of an Oct. 1 exchange in which Duncan and 35-year-old former pornographic actor Paul Kryscuk allegedly discussed their group shooting protesters in Boise.
“People freaking tf out,” Duncan said.
“About what,” Kryscuk replied.
“The end of democracy,” Duncan said.
“One can hope,” Kryscuk added, according to the transcript.
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During an Instagram chat in July, Kryscuk instructed Duncan to “follow BLM Boise,” the indictment says. Two days later, Kryscuk slowly drove around the perimeter of a Black Lives Matter rally on the campus of Boise State University for roughly 20 minutes, according to the indictment. It also says Kryscuk’s vehicle was spotted near another BLM rally at a Boise park in August.
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors told The Associated Press on Oct. 30 that the FBI notified her and fellow movement co-founder Alicia Garza that their names were on a list found in the possession of one of the suspects charged in the case. Garza tweeted about the FBI’s visit to her house.
Cullors said she often gets death threats and usually doesn’t tell her family about them, but this threat gave her “a lot of pause” given the proximity to the election and a recent spate of domestic terrorist attacks by far-right extremists.
“We beefed up our security leading up to the election,” she said. “It’s not a way to live to know that the work that you’re doing is about changing the country to be better and that there are people that are willing to threaten your life.”
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John Little, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, acknowledged Wednesday that he hadn’t seen evidence of Duncan attending rallies. But he testified that Duncan tried to persuade at least one other group member to attend a rally either supporting gay people or another minority group.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Kocher showed the judge a 90-second video that she said shows Duncan firing gunshots and participating in military-style exercises. In the recruitment video, Duncan and three other members flashed “Heil Hitler” salutes while wearing skull masks associated with a neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Division, the indictment says.
A hate symbol was in the background in reference to the perpetrator of the 2019 mass shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, whom Duncan privately considered a “legend,” according to a message presented by the prosecutor.
“Come home white man,” read a message at the end of the video.
Defense attorney Raymond Tarlton said Duncan isn’t a danger to the public or a flight risk.
“He has every incentive to stay here and fight the good fight,” Tarlton said.
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Duncan’s father, Frank, is a Pennsylvania Baptist pastor who offered to house his son while awaiting trial.
“I’ve heard a lot of detail today,” Frank Duncan said Wednesday after hearing testimony about his son. “Probably more than I wanted to.”
The indictment says Duncan, Kryscuk, 21-year-old Liam Collins and 21-year-old Justin Hermanson intended for their illegally manufactured guns to be unlawfully used “in furtherance of a civil disorder.” Collins, Duncan and Kryscuk were arrested on Oct. 20.
Duncan, a military contractor, served in the Marines from 2013 to 2018. Collins, who was separated from the military in September, also had been at Camp Lejeune. Hermanson, an active-duty Marine, was assigned to the same unit as Collins.
Kryscuk moved from New York to Boise early this year. He had previously appeared in porn videos under the name “Pauly Harker,” according to the NCIS agent. Little said Kryscuk engaged in “hate porn” that was “racially motivated” and “concentrated on minority females.”
Duncan moved from San Antonio to the Boise area in September and began working for a U.S. Navy contractor. Collins moved to Boise about two weeks after his separation from the military.
Collins and Kryscuk frequently posted on “Iron March,” a now-defunct internet message board for neo-Nazi groups, according to the indictment. “BSN” was the name of their paramilitary group, but the indictment doesn’t explain the acronym.
“The government does have a strong case against you,” Gates told Duncan.
Kunzelman reported from College Park, Maryland. Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
