US neo-Nazi plotted to kill journalist who reported on him, testimony reveals

An Alabama neo-Nazi accused of trying to start a paramilitary unit to take out “high value targets” aimed to kill a journalist who once reported on him, according to law enforcement testimony obtained by the Guardian.

Aiden Daniel Cuevas allegedly used “coded talk” to tell an undercover officer in November 2024 that the journalist was a “pawn” that “needed to be taken off the board”.
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The case highlights concerns in the US and abroad over increasing efforts by far-right extremists to intimidate, and in some cases attack or endanger, members of the press who seek to cover them.

“They view journalists as enemies of the people, as part of the other,” said Jon Lewis, a researcher at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “The years-long campaign by the right to demonize and delegitimize the media inevitably has real world consequences. Right wing extremists also feel increasingly emboldened seeing allies in the [US] administration openly echo their extremist rhetoric.”