HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — Robert Rundo, founder of the Rise Above Movement which the U.S. Dept. of Justice describes as a “Southern California-based militant supremacist group,” pleaded guilty in a criminal case last week to conspiracy to riot.
According to court records, the plea deal with the prosecutors will involve a sentence no longer than two years of federal time.
“This defendant sought to incite riots to promote a white-supremacist agenda and impede the constitutional rights of others,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada.
“Mr. Rundo’s cowardly and unprovoked acts of violence were unjustly carried out upon his victims, leaving those who were victimized, their families, and our community torn by hate,” said Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office.
“The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to ensure that if a crime is motivated by bias, it will be investigated, and the perpetrators held responsible for their actions. We encourage everyone to report such crimes to the FBI,” added Davis.
According to Rundo’s plea agreement, between March 2017 and May 2018, the DOJ said Rundo and others “participated in an organization that ultimately was rebranded as the “Rise Above Movement” (RAM).
“RAM (represented) itself as a fighting group of a new nationalist and white supremacy identity movement. As part of their membership in RAM, Rundo and others attended rallies with the intent to provoke and engage in violence.”
The DOJ said RAM, in order to “prepare for violent physical conflicts…held hand-to-hand and other fighting training sessions, which they organized through telephone calls, social media, and text messages.
“Rundo organized and attended several such training sessions in 2017. On various social media platforms, Rundo and others posted messages and photographs of themselves preparing for or engaging in violence, accompanied by statements such as “#rightwingdeathsquad.”
The DOJ said, “Rundo and other RAM members prepared to “engage in violence at political events, including a rally on March 25, 2017, in Huntington Beach (where) Rundo and other RAM members pursued and assaulted other persons, including one protestor whom Rundo tackled and punched multiple times…Rundo and his co-conspirators posted online photographs and videos celebrating the assaults they had committed.”
Rundo also was, added the DOJ, an organizer at a 2017 Berkeley rally (where) there were several violent clashes throughout the day. In one such instance, Rundo and several of his co-conspirators crossed a police barrier erected to separate opposing groups.
“They then punched and kicked several people. Following the event, Rundo and his co-conspirators again posted online photographs and videos celebrating the assaults they had committed.”
On June 10, 2017, Rundo and others attended a rally in San Bernardino, at which they confronted and pursued protesters.
The DOJ determined, “Rundo and his accomplices continued to publicly celebrate their assaults, including through online posts with photos and videos of RAM members assaulting people.” He has a December sentencing date.
Before the plea deal, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney from a lower court questioned whether the “alleged right-wing extremist” was being treated “more harshly” than members of “far-left groups,” throwing out Rundo’s charges earlier this year, according to the Daily News.
Not only did federal Judge Carney order Rundo’s immediate release, he accused prosecutors of “selectively prosecuting” Rundo and other suspected “far-right, white supremacist nationalists” while ignoring the actions of “Antifa and other extremist, far-left groups.”
Daily News reported that he also accused “far-left protestors of being responsible for the outbreak of violence” instead.
However, appellate judges with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Rundo’s release and later “overruled Carney’s decision to throw out Rundo’s criminal charges,” said the Daily News.
The appellate judges wrote that in referencing “Antifa and far-left groups,” Judge Carney was comparing “apples to oranges,” since individual Rise Above Members leaders “repeated their conduct at other rallies” and “behaved like leaders of an organized crime group.”
Rundo’s written plea deal described the Rise Above Movement as “a fighting group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement” whose members attend political rallies “with the intent to provoke and engage in violent physical conflicts.”
Federal prosecutors have alleged in previous court filings that Rundo at one point traveled to “Ukraine, Germany and Italy in order to meet with members of other white supremacist groups,” and has “also attempted to avoid capture by fleeing to Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador and Romania,” the Daily News reported.
