White supremacist arrested on federal charges over threats against Tree of Life shooter jury

A known white supremacist was arrested Thursday for allegedly threatening the jury and witnesses in the case against the Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooter.

Hardy Lloyd, from the West Virginia panhandle, sent threatening letters and emails to witnesses and the jury and put up stickers about his white supremacist organization, some containing Nazi imagery, in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, according to federal prosecutors.

According to the Justice Department, Lloyd proclaims himself a “reverend” of a white supremacy movement. He was charged with witness tampering, transmitting threats and obstruction of justice.

“Jury trials are a hallmark of the American justice system and attempts to intimidate witnesses or jurors will be met with a strong response,” federal prosecutor William Ihlenfeld said in a statement. “The use of hateful threats in an effort to undermine a trial is especially troubling.”

According to the criminal complaint, Lloyd shared his displeasure with the case against Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. Bowers was found guilty of hate crimes and sentenced to death earlier this month.

Lloyd previously described Bowers on his site as a “lone wolf hero.”

“Free Robert Bowers Now!! … We need to support anyone who kills jews,” he posted on one Russian social media site, according to prosecutors.

He later added, “Robert Bowers did [Pittsburgh] a Favour. Any juror who finds him guilty is guilty of anti-White racism.”

Prosecutors listed nearly a dozen previous instances of Lloyd calling for the deaths of Jewish people and transgender people in social media comments, nearly all of them made in the course of one day in March.

Lloyd also emailed local news stations saying he would track the cars and license plates of everyone who attended Bowers’s trial.

He repeatedly threatened to release jurors’ personal information in an effort to “make sure they voted the right way,” he said in the email. The identities of jurors in the trial were sealed.

His white supremacist organization’s website, which names him the “Pontifex Maximus Rev. Lloyd,” contains an “enemies page,” listing nearly three dozen people — many of whom Lloyd denotes as Jewish. The page lists the peoples’ home addresses, work places, photos of their families and contact information.

One of the case’s witnesses, a victim of the mass shooting who survived, is on the “enemies list.”

Last month, Lloyd’s messages appeared to get more direct as the trial concluded. He changed the front page of his site to read, “REMEMBER; Most Synagogues Have Zero Armed Guards – Dress As A Jew And Kill!!” on July 17, according to prosecutors.

He ended a July 16 newsletter with a direct call to action, saying “START SHOOTING UP SYNOGUGES!!”

On Tuesday, he wrote in a Telegram post that he intended to kill 5-10 random Black people in Alabama — apparently in response to the Montgomery, Ala., pier brawl — and two random Jewish people in Pittsburgh and Austin, Texas.

“Anti-White HATE has consequences. For every one White attacked or shown bigotry we shall target 2-4 random [Jews or Black people],” he said in a screenshot of the post included by prosecutors, using slurs for the groups.

Law enforcement took Lloyd into custody early Thursday without incident, the Justice Department said.

The most significant charge against him, witness tampering, carries a 20-year maximum sentence.

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