Lawyer says Indiana synagogue vandal was radicalized by conservatives

The lawyer for a man who pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime after vandalizing an Indiana synagogue is arguing that conservative media outlets and commentators helped radicalize him, specifically naming conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.

Samuel Ansell, the lawyer for Nolan Brewer, made the argument in a sentencing memo in which he asserted that the 21-year-old did not deserve prison time for charges stemming from anti-Semitic vandalism, according to The Washington Post.

The memo, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, claimed that Brewer had been heavily influenced by his wife, Kiyomi Brewer, and what she was consuming online.

“According to Nolan, she began with rightwing yet mainstream views such as those presented on Fox News,” the memo reads, according to the Post. “She then moved on to writings by Ben Shapiro and articles on Breitbart News which bridged the gap to the notorious white supremacist and anti-Semitic propaganda site Stormfront.”

Shapiro is the founder of the conservative site The Daily Wire and the host of the popular podcast "The Ben Shapiro Show." Ansell wrote, among other things, that Nolan Brewer "bought into the propaganda."

Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, dismissed the idea that his commentary could cause Nolan Brewer to become radicalized.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/445797-lawyer-for-man-who-vandalized-indiana-synagogue-says-he-was-radicalized-by