Atomwaffen Division were used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing. The raid also found thorium and americium, radioactive substances, in Russell's bedroom. Russell, a former student at the University of South Florida and a Florida Army National Guardsman, had a framed photograph of Timothy McVeigh in his bedroom. The raid also discovered various Atomwaffen paraphernalia and other neo-Nazi propaganda. In September 2017, Russell pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing an unregistered destructive device and to illegally storing explosives; in January 2018, he was sentenced to five years in prison for those crimes. In January 2018, Samuel Woodward was charged
Timothy McVeigh government officials as "fascist tyrants" and "storm troopers" and warned: McVeigh also wrote a letter of recruitment to a customer named Steve Colbern: McVeigh began announcing that he had progressed from the "propaganda" phase to the "action" phase. He wrote to his Michigan friend Gwenda Strider, "I have certain other 'militant' talents that are in short supply and greatly demanded." McVeigh later said he considered "a campaign of individual assassination," with "eligible" targets including Attorney General Janet Reno, Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. of Federal District Court, who handled the Branch Davidian trial, and Lon Horiuchi, a member of the