Who is Justen Watkins? Michigan’s ‘The Base’ leader sentenced to prison on gang membership charges

A Washtenaw County judge resentenced Justen Watkins, the head of the white nationalist organization "The Base," who reportedly organized a "hate camp" in Michigan for members to train for a violent takeover of the government.

Judge Patrick Conlin gave Watkins a prison term ranging from 56 months to 20 years.

Justen Watkins entered a plea of guilty to gang membership crimes following a December 2019 event. Watkins and his co-defendant, Alfred Gorman, employed intimidation techniques in the event and posted messages to other members of The Base targeting a property in Dexter.

Under the terms of the plea deal, charges of using a computer to commit a crime and putting content online without permission were dropped.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel commented on the case and said:

“I refuse to allow domestic terrorists to incite violence against our residents and communities. I am proud to work alongside law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels to safeguard the public from these serious threats and gratified to see justice served.”

An erroneous prison sentence that Conlin imposed in July was rectified by the new sentence.

The maximum sentence ranges must match the maximum penalty for the charge, according to Nessel spokesman Amber McCann, thus the initial sentence of 56 to 72 months was illegal.

In 2018, "The Base," which is the literal English version of "Al-Qaeda," was established. This white supremacy group promotes violence and other crimes against the United States.

As part of its claims, it is preparing gang members for a race war to impose white ethnonationalist authority across parts of the United States, including Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Earlier in 2020, the base crumbled as a result of several high-profile arrests of several of its most important members and the takeover of its propaganda network by an anti-fascist infiltrator.

The majority of the group's surviving members left, and Rinaldo Nazzaro, the 47-year-old founder, went into hiding.

The Michigan cell was one of the organization's final strongholds.

The most recent arrests come at a time when authorities are worried about white nationalist violence ahead of the election next week.

Separate operations in Maryland, Georgia, and Wisconsin have already eliminated the regional cells of The Base, dealing a serious blow to an organization that once planned for a "race war."

Justen Watkins is said to have assumed the leadership of the remaining members of the organization following the collapse of The Base.

The convictions—which also involved others in Tuscola County—marked the first time in Michigan that a charge of conspiring to prepare for a civil riot had been brought up.

According to a press release, the conviction in Washtenaw County marks the first time under Michigan law that a white supremacist terror cell has been charged with a felony of gang membership.