The trial for a soldier arrested in September for providing help for people to build bombs and for discussing plans to attack an American news network — who prosecutors have reportedly called a “Satanist” — has been delayed until January, according to the Associated Press and confirmed by Task & Purpose.
Pfc. Jarret William Smith, 24, was charged with one count of distributing information related to explosives and weapons of mass destruction, according to the Justice Department. He joined the Army as an infantryman in June 2017 and was transferred to Fort Riley, Kan., in July 2019. Prosecutors said that Smith has hopes to overthrow the U.S. government, per the AP.
The AP reports that Smith’s trial was originally set for early December, but U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Kansas approved a request to bump it until “at least mid-January” on Monday.
Smith allegedly offered instructions for how to make improvised explosive devices “in the style of the Afghans” on Facebook, according to court documents.
In August 2019, Smith told an undercover FBI agent that he was looking for “radicals,” and that he “talked about killing members of the far left group, Antifa, as well as destroying nearby cell towers or a local news station.” He also allegedly discussed making a vehicle bomb with an undercover agent, and expressed an interest in joining a far-right paramilitary group in Ukraine.
The FBI agent in charge of the investigation, Special Agent Brandon LaMar, said in his sworn statement that upon arrest, Smith “admitted to me that he knows how to make [IEDs], and that in online chat rooms he routinely provides instruction on building explosive devices. He admitted that he provides this information even to individuals who tell him they intend to use the information to cause harm to others … to cause ‘chaos.’
“He told me that if chaos results in the death of people, even through information he provided, it doesn’t affect him.”