A man with close ties to white supremacist organizations has received more than $100,000 from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an informant, court documents have revealed.
Joshua Caleb Sutter, of Columbia, SC, has worked with the FBI since 2003, according to records obtained by investigative journalist Ali Winston. Records indicate that the FBI had hoped to target others involved in an occult neo-Nazi publisher in the state, Martinet Press. Among many controversial works, their catalog includes “The Devil’s Quran,” a book that promises to provide “a path for those who are willing to enter Hell and claim the Devil as their lord,” according to its description online.
Sutter’s father, David, a Pentecostal minister, is well known as a purveyor of racist memorabilia at the Southern Patriot Shop in Columbia, where both men worked.
Documents uncovered by Winston — a motion to suppress evidence — are part of the feds’ case against Texas resident Kaleb Cole, believed to be a prominent member of the neo-Nazi terror group Atomwaffen Division, which formed officially in 2015 under John Cameron Denton of Virginia. Based in the southern US, the organization has reached well into Canada, the UK, Germany and other European countries.
Attorneys for defendant Cole argue in the motion that evidence tied to a search warrant for his home should be withheld from court proceedings because the affidavit “failed to establish probable cause to search the home.”
While the records do not expressly mention Sutter, a description of the FBI’s informant therein points to his cooperation, according to Winston.
“The government has informed defense counsel that the CI, in this case, has worked as an informant for the FBI for approximately the past sixteen years,” they wrote. “Since 2003, he has been paid over $140,000 for this work. More importantly, the CI has been paid $78,133.20 plus an expense advance of $4,378.60 since February 7, 2018, which almost entirely coincides with his work on the investigation into Mr. Cole and Atomwaffen.”
Sutter was arrested in 2003 over his association with the Aryan Nations, nabbed by an undercover cop in Philadelphia who sold him an unmarked firearm — a detail reflected in Cole’s court motion, hinting at Sutter’s work with the FBI since his arrest 18 years prior.
The motion continues: “The CI is a convicted felon and currently owns and operates a publishing company that distributes white supremacist writings. The CI began his long career as a professional informant in exchange for consideration regarding his sentence on a federal conviction for possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and an unregistered silencer. He has continued to work for pay.”
Upon leaving prison, Vice reports, Sutter moved back to South Carolina and married Jillian Hoy, director of Martinet Press. Investigators have long suspected his partnership with the FBI, at least since 2005, according to Southern Poverty Law Center investigators.