Rebroadcast: An FBI agent went undercover in America’s extremist groups. Here’s what he learned.

Key Takeaways

Retired FBI agent Scott Payne infiltrated major criminal and extremist groups, including the Outlaws, KKK, and 'the Base'.
Undercover operations are sophisticated, demanding genuine relationships with subjects and significant personal sacrifice.
Extremist groups like 'the Base' target vulnerable youth online, promoting accelerationist ideologies to incite violence.
Domestic terrorism investigations focus on preventing violent plots and illegal acts, as hate speech alone is not a federal crime.

Scott Payne's memoir, "Code Name: Pale Horse", details his career and the ongoing threat of extremism in the U.S.
In 2023, the number of active white nationalist groups in the U.S. reached a record high of 165, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Payne recounted becoming a Ku Klux Klan member and deterring an extremist inspired by Dylan Roof from committing murder.

Agent Payne faced a near-fatal incident in 2006 while undercover with the Outlaws motorcycle gang, where he was taken to a basement and searched for a wire.
His cover was nearly blown when he forgot his alias's middle name, prompting his support team to debate intervening while he fumbled for information.
Payne developed undercover personas by staying close to his real self, using common names, and incorporating believable traits like weightlifting and motorcycle riding.

Payne stated he reached his personal threshold for undercover work after a three-year period on the Outlaws case.
He described struggling with a 'warrior mentality' that led to a significant 'crash' involving days of excessive sleep after the case concluded.
The guest highlighted critical issues facing first responders, including high rates of suicide, divorce, alcoholism, and early death after retirement, calling the profession a 'pressure cooker'.

Payne infiltrated 'the Base', a white supremacist accelerationist group aiming to incite a race war and establish an ethnostate through violent acts.
Members of 'the Base' are often young, bullied, outcast individuals who find community and radicalization through online hate propaganda, exacerbated by AI-generated content.
His infiltration process into 'the Base' began with recruitment on platforms like Gab and Telegram, followed by a week of vetting, application downloads, and a panel interview.

Payne recounted a harrowing experience at a 'hate camp' with 'the Base', involving pagan rituals, Bible burning, and a planned goat sacrifice.
A disturbing initiation ritual involved a goat sacrifice with a machete and the consumption of blood and LSD.
These rituals were intended to kick off their 'wild hunt' ideology, aiming to cleanse the world of non-whites and leftists.

The group meticulously planned a murder plot against an 'Antifa couple', including elaborate measures to avoid leaving DNA evidence and discussions about killing 'commie kids'.
Several members of the group were charged at the state level for conspiracy to commit murder and other offenses; federal charges included harboring an undocumented alien and illegal firearm possession.
The group had also planned violence at a pro-gun rally in Virginia in January 2020, which the FBI prevented through a takedown following Payne's recordings of their plans.