An Army veteran who took part in “hate rallies” with white supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to federal gun charges.
Kyle Christopher Benton, 29, was arrested in the fall of 2024 and charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun and possession of an unregistered firearm. According to prosecutors he used his collection of firearms and his military experience to gain credence among Neo-Nazi circles, including helping to provide combat and tactical training to several far-right extremists.
The indictment against Benton described him as being an “accelerationist” with ties to extremist groups, including ones that had plotted terrorist actions against Americans. Law enforcement found a fully automatic M16 as well as two rifles modified to have barrels shorter than 16 inches in his possession. At least one of those was unregistered, per court documents.
“You not only illegally possessed extremely dangerous firearms, but you bragged about it and put on firearms trainings for others while doing so,” U.S. District Judge Tana Lin said during Benton’s sentencing on Wednesday, July 16.
Benton, who was living in Snohomish, Washington, served in the Army from 2017-2020 with the 10th Mountain Division, with one combat deployment. He was also arrested in 2019 after Army investigators found several far-right posts he had made. According to court documents, federal investigators first started looking into Benton after he was discharged from the Army after threatening to kill his wife. His online posts continued after leaving the military, sharing anti-Semitic and white supremacist messages on multiple social media accounts and took part in several “hate rallies” across the Pacific Northwest.
In a court filing, Assistant United States Attorney Brian Wynne said that Benton “actively engaged with groups encouraging racially or ethnically motivated violence and white supremacy. Benton used the firearms along with his military experience to establish himself within the groups. While engaged with these groups he put on workshops about firearms and held tactical trainings for group members.”
Images shared by prosecutors show Benton in military gear with a skull mask holding a rifle, as well as his collection of illegal firearms. According to prosecutors, he was affiliated with many far-right extremist groups, including the Satanic and Neo-Nazi organization the Order of Nine Angles. He also had ties to Terrorgram, a network of accelerationist and neo-fascist groups who communicate over the Telegram messaging app. According to court documents, Benton made posts praising white supremacist and anti-Muslim mass shootings and expressed his support for forming a white ethnostate in the Pacific Northwest.
Top Stories This Week
Benton had pleaded guilty to the charges in March. In a letter to the judge he claimed that his post-traumatic stress disorder, which along with other circumstances, led to his radicalization, but said that he had since disavowed those views.
Benton is one of several former or then-active-duty military members who has been charged in connection to far-right extremism and violence in recent years. Several of these veterans and servicemembers have planned or carried out attacks on American infrastructure including the power grid, law enforcement and other members of the military.
