Capitol rioter with ‘Hitler mustache’ who talked about eating Jews is a Navy contractor and Army reservist

Ben Sales

(JTA) — A Navy contractor who was arrested for taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol sports a “Hitler mustache” and allegedly talked about eating Jews.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, according to The Washington Post, was known by his friends and co-workers as a white supremacist, Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier. He was also a member of the U.S. Army Reserve.

One Navy officer told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that Hale-Cusanelli said “Hitler should have finished the job.”

Another seaman said Hale-Cusanelli said if he were a Nazi, “he would kill all the Jews and eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and he wouldn’t need to season them because the salt from their tears would make it flavorful enough.”

Hale-Cusanelli allegedly also made comments deriding Black people and babies with disabilities. Photos that federal agents found on his phone show him with a mustache and haircut similar to Hitler’s.

The Post reported that Sgt. John Getz, one of Hale-Cusanelli’s supervisors, told agents that Hale-Cusanelli would walk up to people and say “You’re not Jewish, are you?”

Hale-Cusanelli’s lawyer wrote in a court filing that his client is not a member of any white supremacist organizations and that he denied being a Nazi in an interview with the FBI. According to the Post, he is one of  growing number of Capitol rioters with ties to the military or law enforcement.