Christopher Brenner Cook, Domestic Terrorist Plot, Ohio 2022

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two men were sentenced in federal court here today for conspiring to attack power grids throughout the United States to promote their white supremacy ideology.

Christopher Brenner Cook, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced to 92 months in prison. Jonathan Allen Frost, 25, of Katy, Texas, and West Lafayette, Indiana, was sentenced to 60 months in prison. Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was also charged and pleaded guilty in February 2022. His case remains pending.

Cook and Frost engaged in a plot to attack the country’s energy infrastructure, damage the economy, and stoke division in American society in the name of white supremacy. “Revolution is our solution” was a recurring theme in the defendants’ communications to one another.

“These defendants plotted armed attacks against energy facilities to stoke division in furtherance of white supremacist ideology and now they are being held accountable,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The Justice Department will not tolerate the use of violence to advance any extremist ideology and we remain determined to protect our communities from such hateful acts of terror.”

“At the root of every terrorist plot – whether foreign or domestic – is hate,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker. “As a society, we must be vigilant against online radicalization, which is a powerful tool used by extremists to recruit both juveniles and adults.”

The investigation revealed that in fall 2019, Frost and Cook met in an online chat group. Frost shared the idea of attacking a power grid with Cook, and within weeks, the two began efforts to recruit others to join in their plan.

As part of the recruitment process, Cook asked literary questions and circulated a book list of readings that promoted the ideology of white supremacy and Neo-Nazism. The conspirators had a separate propaganda group named “The Front” that planned to take credit for the power grid attack should it occur successfully.

The defendants also created exclusive subgroups for individuals who passed the defendants’ additional screenings. The first subgroup was called “Lights Out.” Each defendant was assigned a substation in a different region of the United States, and the plan was to attack the substations, or power grids, with powerful rifles.

The defendants believed their plan would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest for Americans in the region. They had conversations about how the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause war, even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression.

Related Federal Cases