Bloomingdale resident Jeffrey Raphael Clark, who has previously described himself as a Nazi, will be released from custody after pleading guilty to a federal gun charge and receiving a sentence of time served in court on Friday

His lawyer contended in court documents that his “detention at the D.C. Jail for the last 10 months has caused Mr. Clark to re-evaluate many of the choices he has made in his young life—especially those choices that brought him to the attention of law enforcement.”

Clark was 30 at the time of his arrest in November 2018. The Federal Bureau of Investigations received reports about him from family members, who said he fantasized about murdering “Jews and blacks,” according to court documents. He also characterized the fatal Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting on October 27, 2018 as “a dry run for things to come,” and, alongside his younger brother, who committed suicide shortly after the mass shooting in Pittsburgh, “believed that there would be a race revolution, and they wanted to expedite it,” per the affidavit.

Upon Clark’s arrest, law enforcement discovered Nazi flags and memorabilia, nooses, AR-15 rifle conversion kits and high-capacity AR-15 magazines, and tactical gear at the house in Bloomingdale where Clark resided alongside family members. However, July’s plea deal states that there’s no evidence that Clark had any advanced knowledge of the Tree of Life attack, or that he was planning a separate attack in D.C. Along with his brother, Clark was known to local antifascist organizers, one of whom said Clark sent her a death threat in 2017.

Clark pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of firearms by a person who is an unlawful user of a controlled substance, a charge dependent on the fact that he was both a habitual user of marijuana and the registered owner of two firearms in the District. Although recreational marijuana is legal in D.C., it remains a controlled substance under federal law. The maximum sentence under that statute is 10 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines are between 10 and 16 months.

As first reported by HuffPost, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly sentenced Clark to time served, meaning he will be released after his 10 months in custody. Kelly declined to release Clark prior to his sentencing hearing, citing the prosecutors’ evidence of his white supremacist-related activities and saying, “there’s too much in here about his sympathy for folks who’ve undertaken violence.”

Clark said his 10 months in D.C. Jail, along with his brother’s death, changed him, and that he was deeply sorry for the choices he made, and vowed to “stay away from the darker corners of social media,” according to HuffPost. Prior to his arrest, Clark was active on the social media site Gab, where his username was “DC Bowl Gang,” seemingly referencing the hairstyle of Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine African American at a church in South Carolina in 2015.

Kelly, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in September 2017, said in court that, while Clark’s previous vocal support for mass murderers was worrisome, it still feel under his First Amendment rights. “We don’t punish people for having hate in their hearts about another group of people,” Kelly said, according to HuffPost.

According to court documents, “Mr. Clark intends to reside with his father upon his release from prison.”

At least one Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the Bloomingdale neighborhood is willing to embrace Clark’s return. “I believe in the awesome power of redemption and the dominion spirit of forgiveness,” ANC 5E08 Commissioner Robert Vinson Brannum wrote on the WardFive listserv. “Racism, bigotry, and white supremacy have no home in Bloomingdale, Ward 5, the District of Columbia, or America. If true and if the past period of confinement and reflection have presented Mr. Clark with a new understanding of the meaning of respect, a wider vision of diversity, and the Bloomingdale Spirit; I welcome his new journey in his positive transformation of community outlook and blessings of life.”

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

This story has been updated with comment from Robert Vinson Brannum.