Alleged Nazi-sympathising Capitol rioter who wore a ‘Hitler moustache’ to work on Navy base insists he’s not a white supremacist

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli has been accused of saying ‘Hitler should have finished the job’

An Army reservist charged with taking part in the riots at the US Capitol on 6 January wore a “Hitler moustache” to his work at a Naval base, but has denied to prosecutors that he is a white supremacist.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 30, was employed as a contractor at a Navy base in New Jersey at the time of the riots, in which five people died and several more were injured when a mob of pro-Trump supporters breached the US Capitol.

Federal prosecutors said on Friday that Mr Hale-Cusanelli has been charged with seven criminal counts including civil disorder and disorderly conduct in the Capitol for allegedly breaching the building alongside hundreds of others on 6 January.

In court filings released alongside his charges on Friday, prosecutors revealed that a Navy investigation following his arrest uncovered several incidents where Mr Hale-Cusanelli promoted racist views at work, particularly towards Jewish people.

Of the 44 employees interviewed as part of the investigation, 34 of his colleagues claimed that Mr Hale-Cusanelli held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women”.

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The colleagues claimed that the 30-year-old espoused negative comments about Jewish people on a near-daily basis and advocated for the killing of newborn babies with disabilities.

One supervisor told investigators that Mr Hale-Cusanelli would walk up to people and ask: “You’re not Jewish, are you?”, while a petty officer claimed to hear him say: “Jews, women, and Blacks were on the bottom of the totem pole”.

Prosecutors also revealed on Friday that Mr Hale-Cusanelli came to work at the base last year with a “Hitler moustache”, and an officer claimed that he heard him say: “Hitler should have finished the job.”

However, in an interview with FBI agents following his arrest, Mr Hale-Cusanelli denied being a white supremacist or a Nazi sympathiser, as his attorney Jonathan Zucker argued that he should be released from custody.

“Mr Hale-Cusanelli is charged with crimes stemming from entering and remaining on Capitol grounds, principally offences analogous to trespass,” Mr Zucker wrote in a court filing.

“He is not charged with crimes of violence nor destruction. He never assaulted nor threatened anyone,” the attorney added.

One of his supervisors, sergeant John Getz, also defended Mr Hale-Cusanelli, arguing that he is not a white supremacist because “he would frequently buy breakfast” for a Black colleague.

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Prosecutors claimed that Mr Getz’s defence contradicts comments he made to Navy investigators, who said that he described Mr Hale-Cusanelli as a Holocaust denier.

Mr Getz personally confronted Mr Hale-Cusanelli about his behaviour, according to prosecutors, who said that he told them that he was not personally offended by the contractor’s remarks.

Mr Hale-Cusanelli has a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday, after the Justice Department convinced a senior judge in Washington, DC, to block his release in January.

Following his arrest and alleged involvement in the Capitol riots, Mr Hale-Cusanelli has been discharged from the Army Reserves, which he had been part of since 2009, and has been barred from the Navy base.