(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A former neo-Nazi in Tennessee was sentenced to serve 135 months in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to plotting to destroy a Tennessee energy facility in November 2024, days before the presidential election.
The one-time neo-Nazi, Skyler Philippi, was sentenced after his lawyers pushed for leniency on the grounds that undercover FBI agents “encouraged” him to participate in the plot. Philippi, who’s autistic and was hospitalized in 2015 for suicidal thoughts, also said he’s renounced his neo-Nazi beliefs.
Philippi’s lawyers had sought a 47-month prison sentence for their client—a drastic reduction from the 235-293 months that he was facing.
According to his lawyers, their client was “approached by undercover agents in July 2024.”
“He had recently moved to Tennessee and was homeless,” the lawyers said in a sentencing memorandum last month. “The agents befriended him, ate and drank alcohol with him, and made him feel special and part of the group.”
Philippi’s lawyers filed a partial transcript of recorded conversations between their client and the undercover feds, showing that they pushed him to act before the 2024 election.
“We got to do something quick. Man, it’s November,” one agent told him. “They’re going to steal [the election].”
On the eve of Skyler Philippi's sentencing, his lawyers have filed more evidence that undercover FBI agents encouraged him in a plot to attack energy infrastructure right before the 2024 election.
The DOJ said Philippi determined the timing of the attack, but transcripts filed by… https://t.co/7Ayz9u1ZlM pic.twitter.com/T559qfDeSM— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 6, 2026
Case History
According to the DOJ’s complaint, Philippi had been talking to an FBI informant online earlier in 2024 about committing a mass shooting at a YMCA in Columbia, Tennessee. Instead of arresting him for that, the FBI informant introduced Philippi to another informant, who was located physically closer to him.
That FBI informant, in turn, introduced Phillippi to an undercover agent in August 2024. During an in-person meeting, the defendant allegedly told the agent about his “manifesto,” which outlined desires to attack “high tax cities or industrial areas to let the kikes lose money.” During that conversation, he also allegedly told the agent about his previous affiliation with the Atomwaffen Division—a neo-Nazi terrorist group infiltrated by the FBI years ago.
On Sept. 28, 2024, the FBI introduced Philippi to yet another undercover agent. After the meeting, the undercover agents drove him to a substation to plot the attack, according to the complaint.
A few weeks later, Philippi told the undercover agents he wanted to participate in a “Nordic ritual”—something that’s often popular with neo-Nazi groups such as the Atomwaffen. Philippi said he never participated in such a ritual before, but “the UCEs told PHILIPPI they had previously participated in a Nordic ritual and offered to help set it up.”
As Philippi’s supposed plot progressed, he told the agents he was having trouble building the drone to use as a bomber. According to the criminal complaint, the FBI agents then gave him a drone to use.
Philippi is pictured test-flying the drone in the FBI’s criminal complaint. Afterwards, “PHILIPPI and the UCEs returned to the hotel and began preparing for the attack,” the complaint states.
Later that night, he and the undercover agents left their hotel to carry out the attack—stopping at a bar first, according to Philippi.
“Law-enforcement agents arrested PHILIPPI while he was preparing the drone and the explosives from the back of the vehicle,” the criminal complaint states.
Philippi was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted destruction of an energy facility. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
