NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A 24-year-old man with ties to white nationalist groups pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he attempted to use a drone to bomb a Nashville electricity substation, according to prosecutors.
Skyler Philippi, of Columbia, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said in a statement. He faces up to life in prison at his Jan. 8 sentencing.
“For months, Philippi planned what he had hoped would be a devastating attack on Nashville’s energy infrastructure. He acquired what he believed to be explosives, surveilled his target, and equipped a drone to attack an electrical substation. Motivated by a violent ideology, Philippi wanted ‘to do something big.’ Instead, the FBI disrupted his plans, and Philippi now awaits sentencing,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in the statement…