A Bloomingdale man who has described himself as a Nazi pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge in court on Tuesday.

While the maximum sentence is 10 years in prison, federal sentencing guidelines for the charge are between 10 and 16 months. That means Jeffrey Clark, 30, could be released as early as September, after his sentencing hearing. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who will ultimately decide his sentence, declined to release Clark before the sentencing hearing in September.

Clark was arrested on gun charges in November after family members reported him to law enforcement because he told them he “fantasized about murdering Jews and blacks,” per court documents. Clark and his younger brother, who committed suicide in late October, “believed that there would be a race revolution, and they wanted to expedite it,” according to the documents, and they attended the fatal Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Clark became more outspoken about his views after his brother’s death.

He was known to antifascist organizers in D.C. like Lacy MacAuley, who said Clark sent her a death threat in 2017. After his bail was denied in November, MacAuley told DCist that she felt relieved. “I asked myself whether I would have to be staying somewhere else besides my home” if Clark had been released, she said.

Clark followed Robert Bowers, the suspected killer in the fatal Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, on social media site Gab. (Clark’s Gab username was “DC Bowl Gang,” an apparent reference to the haircut of Dylann Roof, the man convicted of killing nine African American worshipers in South Carolina in 2015.) According to his arrest affidavit, Clark posted on Gab that the victims of the shooting deserved “exactly what happened to them and so much worse,” and he called Bowers a “hero.” When law enforcement collected evidence at the Clark residence, they found  Nazi flags and memorabilia, nooses, AR-15 rifle conversion kits and high-capacity AR-15 magazines, and tactical gear.

However, the plea deal states that the government has no evidence indicating that Clark knew about the Tree of Life attack in advance, or was planning an independent attack in the District.

The gun charge that Clark pleaded guilty to— illegal possession of firearms by a person who is an unlawful user of a controlled substance—rests on the fact that he is a habitual user of marijuana while also being the registered owner of two firearms in D.C. The statement of offense document outlines how the residence smelled like marijuana, and agents seized a marijuana growing operation and a slew of smoking devices. Even though marijuana possession and use is legal in the District, it remains illegal under federal law. The charge against him is illegal possession of firearms by a person who is an unlawful user of a controlled substance.

Federal public defender David Bos, Clark’s attorney, said in court that, “If the marijuana weren’t in this case, there would be no charge,” according to HuffPost. The outlet notes that the lack of a federal law banning domestic terrorism makes it difficult for authorities to prosecute the rising threat of white supremacist violence.

While Bos contended that Clark should be released before his sentencing hearing on September 13, Kelly refused to do so. Per HuffPost, the judge gestured to prosecutors’ argument against releasing Clark and said, “there’s too much in here about his sympathy for folks who’ve undertaken violence.”

Previously:
‘It Has Shocked All Of Us’: Bloomingdale Residents Respond To Neighborhood Nazi
What We Learned From The Court Documents For The Bloomingdale Neo-Nazi