PITTSBURGH — Federal prosecutors this week gave notice to Robert Bowers' legal team that they will use his antisemitic vitriol on Gab.com at his trial as well as evidence from his phone, including a video of Jared Kushner in Jerusalem, images of Bowers making white supremacist gestures and antisemitic emails he sent to family members in the weeks before the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue.
The court filing contains the most details yet publicly released regarding Bowers’ alleged motivation for the mass slaughter on Oct. 27, 2018.
Bowers is charged with storming the synagogue with an assault rifle and killing 11 worshippers in the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history.
He faces the federal death penalty if convicted. His defense team is trying to negotiate a deal that will spare him from execution.
U.S. District Judge Robert Colville hasn't set a trial date but said it will be next year.
Prosecutors are required under the law to file notice of evidence they intend to use at trial. In this case, they outlined Bowers' various diatribes on the far-right Gab site as well as images, emails and other evidence recovered from an FBI search of his phone that illustrates his consuming hatred of Jews. They will also present statements from his family and friends to show how his hatred evolved over time.
The prosecution team said it will use the information to bolster the hate crimes case against Bowers, who is only the fourth defendant in the history of the Western District of Pennsylvania to face the federal death penalty.
Prosecutors said Bowers created a Gab account in January 2018 in which he said "jews are the children of satan" and espoused antisemitic and white supremacist views over the months leading up to the attack.
In one, he posted an image of a body burning in a Holocaust crematorium and wrote on the picture: "Make Ovens 1488°F Again."
Prosecutors said the number 1488 is used by white supremacists as a code, with 14 standing for 14 words in the white supremacist saying, "we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." The 88 stands for "Heil Hitler," because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
Bowers also said on Gab that he held Jews responsible for white disempowerment because of their support for refugees and immigration. In specific, he held the belief that Jews had sponsored a caravan of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. In the weeks before the shooting, he reposted messages from other Gab users in reference to that idea.
"Every time a white country is being invaded by people of color you will find evidence that the Jews are behind it somehow," one poster who called himself TexasVet said. "Here is a picture from the now 4000 strong caravan headed for our southern border. Note that the truck carrying the migrants has a Star of David clearly visible on it." The poster warned about the threat from the "One World Order" supported by Jews and said it was time to "rise up."
Prosecutors said they will also use other Bowers' postings, particularly his angry posts directed at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, or HIAS. On Oct. 10, 2018, two weeks before the Tree of Life assault, he posted a screenshot on his Gab account of an HIAS webpage that announced a National Refugee Shabbat and a link to a list of Jewish congregations hosting the event. One of them was Dor Hadash, which worshipped at Tree of Life.
"Why hello there HIAS! You like to bring in hostile invaders to dwell among us? We appreciate the list of friends you have provided," Bowers wrote.
Just before Bowers attacked the synagogue on Oct. 27, prosecutors said, he posted on his page that "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in."
After the massacre, the FBI seized Bowers' encrypted phone and searched it. Much of the content had been deleted, prosecutors said, but an FBI computer team was able to recover some of it, which the U.S. attorney's office said it will use at trial.
The phone contained multiple photos of Bowers' guns as well as screenshots from a video of Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and at the time a White House adviser, speaking at the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Kushner is Jewish. The phone also contained images of Bowers making an "OK" hand sign that prosecutors said is often used as a white power symbol, with the circled finger and thumb denoting a "p" for power and the other three fingers standing for a "w" for white.
In the years before the Tree of Life attack, prosecutors said, Bowers had told family members about his hatred of Jews and sometimes sent them videos or news items reflecting his views. Prosecutors said Bowers became increasingly focused on conspiracy theories associated with racist or anti-immigrant movements, including QAnon, the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville and Black land repossession in South Africa.
Bowers also sent an email criticizing President Barack Obama's official portrait as "anti-white stuff" and saying that "diversity is your destruction."
In the weeks before the Tree of Life attack, Bowers told relatives that people who meant harm to the U.S. had infiltrated the caravan coming from South America and that Jews were behind it.
Prosecutors said they will also introduce background evidence, including testimony from family and friends, showing how Bowers' hatreds developed.
As an example, they said Bowers lived above a Dormont bakery where he worked in the early 2000s and made statements against the government and the United Nations. He also kept a gun near his door for protection against those government threats, prosecutors said.
In later years, he expressed his hatred of Jews and sometimes disparaged Black people, they said.
The U.S. attorney's office said all of the statements and testimony will allow the jury to understand how Bowers' became who he is and understand "the full story of this crime."
———
