Three men — including ex-Marines — sentenced for involvement in plot to destroy power grid

Three men with connections to white supremacist groups were sentenced Thursday in federal court after plotting to destroy a power grid in the northwestern United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Paul James Kryscuk, 38; Liam Collins, 25; and Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, were all sentenced for their yearslong involvement in a scheme to strike the power grid as part of a larger, violent extremist plot, according to a Justice Department news release. Two of the men, Collins and Hermanson, were members of the same U.S. Marine unit at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, during the planning, a federal indictment shows.

Collins received the longest sentence of 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting the interstate transportation of unregistered firearms. Kryscuk received a sentence of six and a half years for conspiracy to destroy an energy facility, and Hermanson was sentenced to one year and nine months for conspiracy to manufacture and ship firearms between states.

“These sentences reflect both the depravity of their plot and the Justice Department’s commitment to holding accountable those who seek to use violence to undermine our democracy,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the news release.

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