Antigovernment Radio Host Convicted of Firearms Crimes Gets Six Years in Prison
An antigovernment extremist in Montana who used his webcast to advocate murdering public officials and other violence will spend six years in federal prison.
William Krisstofer Wolf, a 53-year-old construction worker, was found guilty last November of federal firearms violations by a U.S. District Court jury in Billings, Mont. Prosecutors asked for the maximum 10-year sentence, but U.S. District Court Judge Susan Watters last Thursday sentenced Wolf to 72 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised released.
“The public has to be protected from you,” the judge told the defendant, the Billings Gazette reported. Watters said Wolf, based in Bozeman, Mont., had used his “Montana Republic” webcast to advocate a “shocking” level of violence against law enforcement, judges and other public officials.
On his webcasts, Wolf urged militia followers to take “direct action to restore a Constitution-based government.” He advocated targeting of law enforcement officers, politicians, and judges and repeatedly said local, state, and federal government agents were his intended “targets.”
When his talk turned to action and he began seeking out high-powered weaponry, including a flame-thrower for a coming “second American revolution,” the FBI got interested in Wolf.
He called a “committee of safety meeting” in January 2015 in Bozeman where he advocated “dropping 500 pounds of napalm through the roof of the [local] courthouse and burn it to the ground and roast some marshmallows on it.”
Wolf was arrested after he subsequently bought a sawed-off, fully automatic Russian Saiga-12 shotgun that was capable of shooting 10 rounds in two seconds, court documents say.
At sentencing, Wolf rambled for 15 minutes, telling the court the FBI had twisted his previous statements and a paid informant had lied during his trial.
“I was entrapped and ultimately denied a fair and impartial trial amounting to a political persecution," Wolf told the court.
The Billings newspaper reported that the federal judge told the defendant he crossed his constitutionally protected right of free speech when he purchased the illegal shotgun. That action, the judge said, revealed the defendant’s desire for violence was real.
