(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the early 1990s, Brian P. Haughton was playing music in a neo-Nazi punk band with at least one member of the Aryan Republican Army—a gang of white supremacist bank robbers who used the proceeds of their crimes to fund domestic terrorism, possibly including the Oklahoma City bombing.
After a career as a Philadelphia police officer, Haughton was hired by the Justice Department several years ago to track domestic terrorism threats through its Regional Information Sharing Systems program, or RISS. Headline USA understands that Haughton was still working for the department at least as of last November.
Haughton’s employment through the DOJ was first reported in November 2021 by The Progressive Magazine. The left-leaning publication suggested that Haughton’s hiring at the DOJ was due to his “white privilege.”
But Haughton’s government position could also stem from him spying on the early-90s neo-Nazi movement, according to Frank Meeink—a former neo-Nazi who now works on deradicalizing people from the movement, and whose life story helped inspire actor Edward Norton’s character in the hit film, American History X.
If that’s the case, Haughton would have been spying on neo-Nazis involved with the deadliest domestic terrorism attack in American history, the OKC bombing.
Meeink, who knew Haughton when they were both in the neo-Nazi movement, told Headline USA that he “heard through the grapevine” that Haughton may have been working for law enforcement in an undercover capacity in the early 90s—which would explain how he was hired as a police officer around that same time.
“We’ve heard through the grapevine that he was undercover even back then. That does go to the fact that: Why would they support him? Because he was a major part of one of the leading neo-Nazi bands in America. So were they propping him up even then?” Meeink asked.
Meeink added that he believes Haughton may have provided information about the ARA bank robbers to law enforcement. The FBI arrested the ARA members in early 1996.
“I believe he did inform on the ARA, but I think [the FBI] already had enough to get them, and that Brian probably helped a little bit,” he said.
“Either way, it’s either corrupt or stupidity on the country’s part. Because if he was undercover, he helped propagate white supremacist beliefs in a major way, which led to so other major stuff.”
Meeink said another anomaly about Haughton’s career is the fact that the Philadelphia Police Department kept him as an officer, even after media reports began circulating in the 90s about the department’s employment of neo-Nazis. Meeink said several neo-Nazis were purged from the department, but not Haughton—though that could have been because he had family members working in the department who protected him.
“[Philadelphia purged its racist cops] because they knew defense attorneys would eventually find this information, and anytime a neo-Nazi was involved in the arrest of a black person or anything like that, the defense attorney is going to tear them up on the witness stand,” Meeink explained.
“But they kept Brian on because his dad was involved in the Fraternal Order of Police. When a lot of the shit started coming out, they took him off the streets and let him train at the academy.”
Haughton’s unexplained employment with the DOJ adds yet another layer to the wider conspiracy surrounding the ARA and the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing.
As Headline USA has extensively reported, federal law enforcement had foreknowledge of the OKC bombing: ATF informant Carol Howe warned her handlers in early 1995 that neo-Nazis were planning the attack from Elohim City, a Christian Identity compound in eastern Oklahoma.
Evidence also suggests that the OKC bombing may have been a failed sting operation. According to FBI informant-turned-whistleblower John Matthews, the bureau was aware of some of OKC bomber Timothy McVeigh’s movements beforehand. Former FBI official Danny Coulson has also revealed that the bureau knew McVeigh visited Elohim City, where some of the ARA bank robbers were staying at the time.
Additionally, criminologist Mark Hamm tracked the ARA and McVeigh’s movements throughout 1994 and 1995, finding that the bomber was often in Arizona, Kansas and Oklahoma at the same time as other ARA members.
“It is highly improbable—if not statistically impossible—for nine men with such violent predispositions and such deep connections within the white power movement … to randomly come together at the same time in the same geographical area,” Hamm concluded, referring to McVeigh, his accomplice Terry Nichols and the ARA.
Even more shocking is that Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue obtained an email from former FBI agent Don Jarrett—who investigated right-wing terrorism in the 1990s—saying that the ARA was thoroughly infiltrated by FBI informants.
All of that raises the question: Was Haughton a part of that failed sting operation that was targeting McVeigh?
FBI records do show that the bureau’s Philadelphia office had at least one informant monitoring the ARA for possible links to the bombing—though that informant was operating in 1996, which was after Haughton was already a sworn police officer.
One of the ARA members, Kevin McCarthy, was also allegedly having FBI intel leaked to him through his uncle, who was a police officer with connections to the bureau.
However, the DOJ didn’t respond to numerous emails from Headline USA about the matter. The DOJ today, of course, is headed by Merrick Garland, who helped prosecute McVeigh and continues to insist that the bomber acted alone on April 19, 1995.
Haughton couldn’t be reached for comment. Haughton’s former neo-Nazi bandmate and ARA bank robber Scott Stedeford didn’t respond to a letter seeking comment.
Despite acknowledging the possibility that Haughton was an undercover informant in the early 90s, Meeink said he doesn’t think that’s why he was hired by the DOJ some 25 years later. Rather, he said he thinks Haughton was hired during the Trump era to track Muslin and left-wing terrorists.
“The Trump administration wanted to allocate more money to [countering] Muslim extremists than the right wing. I feel they were bringing people aboard who were sympathetic towards right-wing extremists,” said Meeink, who also said he doesn’t believe that the ARA bank robberies were used to fund McVeigh.
“Why would they put him at a hub gathering intel on domestic terrorists? They were hiring him to go against Antifa.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
