(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In April, the Justice Department criminally charged a man who was recently expelled from a militia for promoting terrorism within the group—the latest bizarre twist in a story that resembled the FBI-driven plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The suspect, Russell Richardson Vane IV, now faces a count of attempted production of a biological agent or toxin.
At the time, Vane had caused a stir in the militia community for spreading purported Defense Intelligence Agency instructions for making explosives—one of the reasons he was kicked out of the Virginia-based militia, the Kekoas. His fellow Kekoas thought he may have been a government provocateur set out to entrap them, and Vane was only charged after those militia members went public about their concerns.
“It freaked me the hell out … Inside of it, it’s literally showing how to use cellulose, how to get cellulose [Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound used in explosives], the applications for it—the whole nine yards,” a Kekoa leader named “Sasquatch” told reporter Ford Fischer earlier this year.
Records filed by the DOJ in April confirmed that Vane used his “work computer” to print the government documents, but those filings didn’t name the agency. However, an FBI affidavit signed in May and recently unsealed confirms that the records do indeed come from the DIA—the Pentagon’s version of the CIA.
A recently unsealed search warrant confirms that the explosives manuals came from the Defense Intelligence Agency
The search warrant was executed in June — after Vane was charged for attempting to produce a toxin — which suggests more charges could be coming https://t.co/N6ASCfUdPI pic.twitter.com/39K7hjyokw— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 9, 2024
“In the YouTube video, militia members stated that VANE worked in some capacity for the United States Government, had printed off explosives-making instructions from his government network account, and had passed physical copies of that information to one of their members,” stated the search warrant affidavit, signed by FBI agent Steven Nestoryak.
“In an interview with FBI Task Force Officers in early April 2024, one of the militia members turned over an explosives precursor report generated by the Defense Intelligence Agency that VANE had given to them.”
The FBI affidavit was made to support a search warrant application for Vane’s gmail account, [email protected]. The search warrant was only executed in June, suggesting that Vane’s still under investigation—and that more charges for stealing classified documents could be coming down the pipeline.
Right now, he remains in pretrial detention for the attempted production of a biological agent or toxin. He faces life imprisonment.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
