Far-Right Terrorism: Deadliest Attacks, Networks, and Prosecutions

Far-right terrorism is politically motivated violence carried out by individuals or groups driven by white supremacist, anti-government, or related extreme right-wing ideologies, and it has been the deadliest form of domestic extremism in the United States for most of the past three decades. Data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies attributes 57% of all U.S. terrorist attacks and plots between 1994 and 2020 to far-right actors.¹ Over the past decade, right-wing attacks killed 112 people in the U.S., compared with 13 deaths from left-wing attacks and 82 from jihadist incidents.² A United Nations report documented a 320% increase in attacks by individuals affiliated with right-wing terrorism internationally between 2014 and 2018.³

What the Label Actually Covers

The University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database defines right-wing extremism as violence rooted in the belief that a personal or national way of life is under attack, characterized by racial or ethnic supremacy, suspicion of federal authority, anti-globalism, and belief in conspiracy theories.⁴ Within that broad category, researchers identify several distinct strands.

White supremacists believe in white racial superiority and often adhere to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which holds that white populations are being deliberately displaced through immigration and demographic change. The most radical embrace accelerationism, a strategy meant to hasten the collapse of modern society and produce an all-white ethnostate. Anti-government extremists, including militia movements, sovereign citizens, and “boogaloo” adherents, view the federal government as corrupt or tyrannical, and some seek to trigger a second civil war. Involuntary celibates, or incels, form a predominantly online subculture that justifies violence against women based on a rigid perceived social hierarchy.¹ Militant accelerationists draw on the writings of neo-Nazi James Mason and promote terrorism as a tool to deliberately destabilize liberal democracies; groups like the Atomwaffen Division, The Base, and the Feuerkrieg Division operate under this framework.⁵

A common operational feature across these strands is “leaderless resistance,” where individuals or small autonomous cells act without hierarchical direction. That structure makes detection significantly harder than with traditional organized groups.¹

The Deadliest U.S. Attacks

Far-right violence in America stretches from Klan-era racial terror through the present. On September 15, 1963, KKK members bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls. On April 19, 1995, anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds. That remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.⁶

More recent attacks have overwhelmingly targeted racial, religious, and ethnic minorities. In June 2015, white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine Black worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In August 2017, neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into counter-demonstrators at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one and injuring 28.⁶ In October 2018, Robert Bowers opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 Jewish worshippers in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. In August 2019, a gunman targeting Hispanics killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; his manifesto cited the Great Replacement theory and the Christchurch attack. In May 2022, a white supremacist livestreamed his attack on a supermarket in a predominantly Black Buffalo, New York, neighborhood, killing 10.⁷

Between 2017 and 2022 alone, the Anti-Defamation League documented 67 far-right domestic terror incidents that killed 58 people. White supremacists were responsible for 91% of those deaths.⁷ The ADL has separately reported that 100% of identified extremist-related killings in the U.S. were attributed to right-wing extremists in 2022, 2023, and 2024.⁸

January 6 and the Reversal of Its Prosecutions

The January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol became the most high-profile episode of far-right extremist violence in a generation. A mob driven by conspiracy theories about a stolen election breached the Capitol, injuring approximately 140 police officers. The Justice Department’s “Capitol Siege” unit ultimately prosecuted more than 1,500 cases.⁹ The most serious charges were brought against leaders of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, with founder Stewart Rhodes and several members convicted of seditious conspiracy, a rarely used Civil War-era charge.¹⁰ Rhodes received an 18-year prison sentence; Proud Boys member Zachary Rehl was sentenced to 15 years.

Those convictions were effectively undone under the second Trump administration. On his first day back in office in January 2025, President Trump issued a clemency decree that commuted the sentences of 12 Oath Keepers and Proud Boys members, releasing them from prison.¹¹ In April 2026, the Justice Department went further, asking a federal appeals court to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions entirely, a move that would clear the defendants’ felony records and restore their right to possess firearms. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the mass pardons one of the administration’s “greatest achievements.” Former Capitol Siege prosecutor Greg Rosen said the move “overrides the considered will and judgments of judges and juries” and rewards defendants “solely because of their political alignments.”⁹

Networks Under Prosecution

Atomwaffen Division

Atomwaffen is an international neo-Nazi organization built on accelerationist ideology, implicated in nearly a dozen murders globally, and known for training recruits in firearms and military tactics.¹² Its founder, Brandon Russell, was sentenced in August 2025 to the maximum 20 years in federal prison for conspiring to destroy Baltimore’s regional power grid by attacking five electrical substations. U.S. District Judge James Bredar called Russell “profoundly dangerous” and the “brains” behind a plot intended to trigger a cascading failure that would have produced more than $75 million in damage.¹³ Co-conspirator Sarah Beth Clendaniel received 18 years.¹⁴ Russell had previously served five years for possession of explosive materials and was on supervised probation when he began the power grid scheme.¹⁵

The Base

The Base, founded in 2018, advocates the overthrow of governments through terrorism and infrastructure attacks. In 2020, three members were arrested for plotting a mass shooting at a Virginia gun rights rally meant to spark a race war. In 2019, a member directed the vandalism of synagogues in Wisconsin and Michigan in an operation called “Kristallnacht.”¹⁶ The European Union designated The Base as a terrorist entity in July 2024, making it the first far-right organization on the EU’s sanctions list; Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand had already done so between 2021 and 2022.⁵ Arrests of suspected members continued in the Netherlands and Italy in September 2024, and in July 2025 the group’s Ukrainian cell claimed responsibility for the assassination of a Ukrainian intelligence officer.

Terrorgram Collective

The Terrorgram Collective operates primarily on the Telegram messaging platform, producing propaganda that has inspired real-world violence. Attacks linked to the group include a 2022 shooting outside an LGBTQ+ bar in Slovakia and a 2024 knife attack at a mosque in Turkey.¹⁷ In September 2024, a federal grand jury indicted two U.S.-based leaders, Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison, on 15 counts including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, soliciting hate crimes, and soliciting the murder of federal officials. They face up to 220 years in prison.¹⁸ In January 2025, the State Department designated the Terrorgram Collective and three of its international leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

Online Radicalization and the Lone Actor Problem

Right-wing extremists were among the first political movements to exploit the internet for recruitment and propaganda.¹⁹ University of Maryland PIRUS data shows that by 2016, social media played a role in the radicalization of nearly 90% of U.S. extremists studied, and the average time from first exposure to extremist beliefs to participation in extremist activity fell from about 18 months in 2005 to 13 months in 2016.²⁰

The 2019 Christchurch mosque attack in New Zealand was especially catalytic. The attacker livestreamed the killings on Facebook, published a manifesto promoting the Great Replacement theory, and announced his intentions on 8chan. That combination became a template. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue has traced a chain of influence from Christchurch to attacks in Poway, El Paso, Halle, Buffalo, Bratislava, and Colorado Springs.²¹ Within accelerationist online communities, attackers are glorified as “saints,” their manifestos circulate as instructional texts, and victim counts are treated as competitive scores.²²

As mainstream platforms improved detection, actors have migrated to encrypted and alternative services including Telegram, Gab, and various chan boards. Australia’s intelligence chief revealed that extremists have attempted to use commercially available AI tools to bypass safety filters and obtain advice on weapon construction and attack planning.¹⁹ Europol’s 2025 report said the use of generative AI to create far-right propaganda and hate speech has reached “unprecedented levels.”²³

Lone actors dominate the recent data. The ADL found that 72% of far-right terror incidents between 2017 and 2022 involved a single perpetrator, and lone actors were statistically more successful in causing harm than multi-person plots, which were more frequently thwarted.⁷ The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism attributes this to their tradecraft: lone actors typically do not communicate their plans, lack formal organizational ties, and are often embedded in the communities they target.²⁴ The label can be misleading, though. Many “lone” attackers are deeply embedded in online communities that validate their beliefs, provide tactical guidance, and encourage violence, even without formal membership.²⁰

Extremism Inside the U.S. Military

University of Maryland research has documented a growing overlap between military service and far-right extremist activity. Between 1990 and 2023, 730 individuals with U.S. military backgrounds committed ideologically motivated crimes, and the rate of such cases increased by more than 300% after 2010, even excluding January 6 defendants. Among the 116 individuals who committed extremist crimes while on active duty, over half were linked to white supremacist groups or movements. The Army and Marine Corps accounted for nearly three-quarters of all subjects, with the Marine Corps having the highest per capita rate. Roughly 15% of those charged in the January 6 Capitol breach had military backgrounds.²⁵

The International Picture

Far-right terrorism is transnational. The United Nations has described it as one of the fastest-growing security threats facing Western nations, citing attacks in Norway (the 2011 Utøya massacre), New Zealand (Christchurch in 2019), and Germany (the 2019 assassination of regional governor Walter Lübcke).³ Far-right extremism accounts for 64% of the 36 ideologically motivated attacks or plots against elected officials in Europe recorded between 2015 and 2025, according to the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, with Germany suffering 30% of those attacks.²⁶ Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Verfassungsschutz, has identified right-wing extremism as the biggest threat to German democracy for several years, and in May 2025 it officially classified the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an “extremist entity that threatens democracy” in an 1,100-page assessment.²⁷ Europol’s 2025 TE-SAT flagged concern about the “very young age of some of the suspects arrested” and a growing “hybridisation” of ideologies, in which online communities blend accelerationism, jihadism, and occultism.²³

Why There Is No Federal Domestic Terrorism Charge

One of the most persistent challenges in addressing far-right terrorism in the United States is that there is no standalone federal criminal statute for domestic terrorism. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 defines domestic terrorism under 18 U.S.C. § 2331(5), but that definition carries no criminal penalty.²⁸ Prosecutors must rely on whatever existing charge fits the conduct, such as seditious conspiracy, hate crimes, weapons offenses, or conspiracy to damage energy facilities, rather than charging an act directly as terrorism.²⁹

Prosecutors can request a sentencing “terrorism enhancement” under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which significantly increases offense levels if terroristic intent is proven. Judges retain discretion to reject it, and critics have called the enhancement a blunt instrument.²⁹ Domestic terrorism cases historically produce shorter sentences than international terrorism cases prosecuted under the material support statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2339B.²⁸ The federal government also lacks a formal designation mechanism for domestic terrorist organizations. Several allied countries do have proscription frameworks, and the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the European Union have designated groups like The Base and the Terrorgram Collective as terrorist entities, unlocking sanctions and criminal penalties for membership.⁵

The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, reintroduced in the Senate in July 2025 by Senator Dick Durbin, would codify dedicated offices within the DOJ, DHS, and FBI to monitor and prosecute domestic terrorism, mandate biannual threat assessments to Congress, and create a task force addressing white supremacist infiltration of the uniformed services. A previous version passed the House but was filibustered in the Senate in 2022.³⁰

Where the Threat Stands Now

The Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment, published in October 2024, stated that the terrorism threat to the United States was expected to remain “high” through 2025, with domestic violent extremists posing the “most significant physical threat” to government officials, voters, and election infrastructure. Between September 2023 and July 2024, domestic violent extremists conducted at least four attacks and law enforcement disrupted at least seven additional plots.³¹

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has substantially restructured the federal counterterrorism apparatus. DHS canceled nearly $20 million in funding for 24 research and violence prevention projects and terminated a $3 million cooperative agreement with the University of Maryland’s START consortium, which maintained a national database tracking domestic terrorism, hate crimes, and school shootings.³² The department’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, which had awarded nearly $90 million to community violence prevention groups since 2020, saw 75% of its staff fired and its leadership handed to a 22-year-old with no national security experience.³³ The FBI cut staffing in its domestic terrorism unit and reassigned agents from terrorism cases to support immigration enforcement operations.³⁴ The Department of Justice fired a dozen prosecutors who had handled January 6 cases and canceled over $800 million in grants that had funded violence intervention programs and services for hate crime victims. Internal data showed a 25% increase in terrorism and targeted violence incidents during the first two months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.

Even so, a September 2025 CSIS analysis found that right-wing terrorism experienced a “striking” decline in the first half of 2025, with only one recorded incident: the June 14 assassination of Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, allegedly carried out by Vance Boelter, who disguised himself as a police officer and targeted Democratic politicians.² Boelter has been indicted on six counts including murder and has pleaded not guilty; federal prosecutors described his motive as “political extremism” and confirmed he acted alone.³⁵ The decline marked the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing incidents outnumbered far-right ones, though CSIS emphasized that left-wing attacks remain “overwhelmingly non-lethal.”

CSIS attributed the 2025 dip in part to the Trump administration’s adoption of positions previously championed by far-right movements, such as aggressive anti-immigration enforcement, criticism of federal agencies, and promotion of certain conspiracy theories, which may have reduced the perceived need for violent independent action among extremists. The ongoing legal fallout from January 6 also caused disarray within organized far-right networks. The researchers cautioned that the decline is likely “temporary” and that far-right terrorism could “come roaring back,” particularly if future political events such as the 2028 election reactivate grievances around stolen-election narratives.²

1
CSIS. The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States
2
CSIS. Left-Wing Terrorism and Political Violence in the United States
3
United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee. Secretary-General’s New Report Highlights New Emerging Form of “Far-Right” Terrorism
4
START, University of Maryland. Ideological Motivations of Terrorism in the United States
5
International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. The Base and the Basis for Listing Far-Right Terror Groups
6
Council on Foreign Relations. Far-Right Terrorism in the United States
7
ADL. Right-Wing Extremist Terrorism in the United States
8
ADL. ADL Data Shows Extremist-Related Murders Set to Increase in 2025
9
NPR. Trump Jan 6 Capitol Riot Seditious Conspiracy
10
PBS NewsHour. Jury Finds 4 Oath Keepers Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy in Jan 6 Case
11
The New York Times. Justice Dept Vacate Jan 6 Convictions
12
George Washington University Program on Extremism. Atomwaffen Division
13
CNN. Neo-Nazi Maryland Power Grid Plot Sentencing
14
U.S. Department of Justice. White Supremacist Leader Found Guilty Conspiring to Destroy Regional Power Grid
15
CBS News Baltimore. Neo-Nazi Maryland Power Grid Sentenced Brandon Russell
16
George Washington University Program on Extremism. The Base
17
U.S. Department of State. Terrorist Designations of the Terrorgram Collective and Three Leaders
18
U.S. Department of Justice. Leaders of Transnational Terrorist Group Charged With Soliciting Hate Crimes, Soliciting Murder
19
Parliament of Australia. Extremism and the Online Environment
20
START, University of Maryland. Use of Social Media by US Extremists
21
Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Five Years On From Christchurch
22
Global Network on Extremism and Technology. The Globalisation of Right-Wing Copycat Attacks
23
Europol. EU TE-SAT 2025 Summary
24
International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. Lone Wolves
25
START, University of Maryland. Radicalization in the Ranks
26
Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. A New Regicides Era: Analyzing Trends in Terrorism Threats Against European Elected Officials
27
BBC. Germany Classifies AfD as Right-Wing Extremist
28
Lawfare. Jan 6 and Beyond: Why the U.S. Should Pass Domestic Terrorism Legislation
29
Harvard Law Review. Responding to Domestic Terrorism: A Crisis of Legitimacy
30
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Durbin Reintroduces Bill to Combat Alarming Rise in Domestic Terrorism Threats
31
Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Threat Assessment 2025
32
The Washington Post. Domestic Extremism Database Trump Cuts
33
U.S. House Democrats, Committee on the Judiciary. Letter From Raskin to Bondi, Patel, and Noem
34
ProPublica. Trump DOGE Budget Cuts Terrorism Prevention
35
Fox 9. Hortman Killing