Four men charged in deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally

Federal authorities late Tuesday charged four men of rioting in connection to last year’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. The men are part of the Rise Above Movement, a group that espouses anti-Semitic and racist views. Members organize, train, and deploy individuals to political rallies across the country, according to U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen, who called the men “serial rioters” during a Tuesday news conference. An FBI affidavit alleged the four punched, kicked, and head-butted counterprotesters and were “among the most violent individuals present” during the Aug. 11, 2017, torch-lit march on the University of Virginia campus and a “Unite the Right” rally in downtown Charlottesville the next day.

Authorities arrested Benjamin Drake Daley, Michael Paul Miselis, Thomas Walter Gillen, and Cole Evan White early Tuesday morning, and each man faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of charges of traveling to incite riots and conspiracy to riot.

The arrests come a year after hundreds of white supremacists descended on Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a man plowed a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, and two state troopers later died when a police helicopter monitoring the rally crashed.