The investigation into Holzer began after an undercover FBI agent purporting to be a woman who supports white supremacy contacted him on Facebook. The public defender assigned to represent Holzer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, and it was not immediately clear if he had entered a plea.
Holzer was in federal custody in the Denver area, said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver. "I wish the Holocaust really did happen ... they need to die", he wrote her on Facebook, according to the court documents. He added that the four of them should launch the attack at 2 or 3 a.m.to avoid the police.
The undercover agents provided Holzer with dummy explosive devices, including two pipe bombs and 14 sticks of dynamite that had been fabricated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the affidavit, Holzer "said that he wanted to put the Synagogue on the ground and demolish it".
According to court documents, Holzer claimed that he had previously hired a man nicknamed "Mexican Hitler" for $70 to "hex and poison" the synagogue by putting arsenic in its pipes.
Holzer repeatedly espoused antisemitic and white supremacist views in his messages with the agent.
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Al Baghdadi's aide, a Saudi, was killed hours after the raid, also in northwestern Syria, in a United States strike. Further, the official said the adults are being grilled, as per government protocol.
In addition to Holzer, at least 12 other people have been arrested in connection with plots or attacks against Jews since the mass shooting at the Tree of Life, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which says the arrests reflect a recent spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. "Like advertising. They're hitting soft targets and churches, and synagogues are soft targets". According to the affidavit, it was during this stop that Holzer concluded that Molotov cocktails wouldn't get the job done. In fact, the undercover agents had phony bombs incapable of causing damage, authorities said.
After his arrest on Friday, Holzer allegedly told law enforcement that though he hadn't planned on hurting anyone, he still would've gone through with his plan if there were someone inside the synagogue.
In mid-October, investigators said, Holzer and a friend met with multiple undercover agents at a restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colo., where Holzer talked about how he wanted to destroy the synagogue.
After his arrest, Holzer confessed to the plot, which he referred to as "my mountain", according to the affidavit. The suspect said he would conduct the attack in the middle of the night. The oldest Colorado synagogue, also named Temple Emanuel, was established in 1874 in nearby Denver. Pueblo is about a two hour drive south of Denver. The arrest affidavit notes that Holzer's actions rise to the level of domestic terrorism, "in that the defendant's actions involve criminal acts unsafe to human life and are meant to intimidate or coerce a civilian population".
"Pueblo is a diverse community, a community characterized by inclusiveness and not these types of behaviors", Troy Davenport, Pueblo's chief of police, said at the news conference.
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