Racists See ‘Set-Up' in Arrest of Idaho Lawyer

Onetime Aryan Nations attorney Edgar J. Steele was denied bail today in a case that has many of his fellow bigots suggesting in postings to white nationalist websites that the Idaho attorney must be an innocent victim of a conspiracy because of his racist views — not a man who plotted to have his wife and mother-in-law killed.

Steele was arrested June 11 and charged with use of interstate commerce in the commission of murder for hire. Federal authorities contend that Steele, 64, paid a man he knew to make it appear that his wife, Cyndi, and her mother died in a car accident. Steele hoped to collect on an insurance policy, an FBI informant said.

Four days after Steele’s arrest, auto shop workers discovered a pipe bomb attached to the underside of a sport utility vehicle driven by Cyndi Steele. Larry A. Fairfax, who like Steele lives in Slagle, Idaho, was charged with two felonies in connection with the pipe bomb and also is being held without bond. Fairfax — who was the FBI’s informant — says he rigged the device so that it wouldn’t explode. Prosecutors maintain that Fairfax didn’t disclose everything he knew about the alleged plot.

To many in the white supremacist world, the only plot is one they imagine is being perpetrated against Steele.

“I agree with the general sentiment that something is fishy,” wrote Disappointed American on Stormfront.org, the leading white supremacist forum in the world.  “Steele isn’t a dumba$$ redneck. He can hold his own in an interview with the MSM [mainstream media].”

“He was waking people up and had to be stopped is my guess,” opined Sivaro.

“It’s a setup; ZOG [Zionist Occupied Government] knows we get discouraged easily. Don’t believe it,” advised Aufreizen.

Over at the website of the neo-Nazi Vanguard News Network (VNN), there were equally dark ruminations and, in some cases, somewhat more detailed conspiracy theories than those espoused at Stormfront.

“I think that, with his recent column stating his ‘return’ to full-scale pro-White anti-Semitism, some ADL-friendly jew became a ‘hit man’ and got him popped,” wrote Metal Warrior. Others writing at VNN theorized that Steele’s arrest and indictment were “a setup” to silence him. “EVERY single White man who has spoken out for White Justice and Freedom against tyranny has died or been framed or harrassed [sic],” wrote America First.

Still another writer cited the opinion of a reputed mind control expert who said the government “can program people to do things and the person is not even aware of what is really happening,” and suggested that this could explain the Steele criminal case.

Then there is Steve Lillywhite, who blamed the state of America’s health care system for the legal problems that have befallen Steele. Alluding to Steele’s near-fatal aortic aneurism last November, Lillywhite wrote, “He probably went crazy when the medical bills started rolling in. I think Edgar Steele is a victim of the insane and shitty health care system we have in the United States.”