Members of white nationalist group Patriot Front convicted of conspiracy to riot at Pride event

A jury on Thursday convicted five members of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front of the misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to riot at a 2022 Pride event in northern Idaho.

After about an hour of deliberation, a six-person jury in Kootenai County returned unanimous guilty verdicts for Forrest Rankin, Devin Center, Derek Smith, James Michael Johnson and Robert Whitted.

The six men are among 31 individuals arrested in Coeur d’Alene, a city of 56,000 about 280 miles north of Boise, on June 11, 2022.

Officials said the group was planning to riot in the city’s downtown, where the local LGBTQ community and their allies were celebrating a large Pride in the Park event, organized by the North Idaho Pride Alliance.

Designated as an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Front is a white nationalist group that broke off from Vanguard America, another white supremacist group, in the aftermath of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. in August 2017.

The 31 men — who came from at least 12 different states — were taken into custody after police received a tip from a concerned citizen who spotted the group cramming into a U-Haul with riot gear.

The person called local authorities to report seeing people loading into a U-Haul van like “a little army” at a parking lot.

Police later found riot gear, a smoke grenade, shin guards and shields inside the vehicle.

The five men are scheduled to be sentenced later on Friday. Conspiracy to riot is punishable by up to one year in jail, a $5,000 fine, and up to two years of probation.

With News Wire Services