The Army has removed a Fort Liberty soldier from the service after his indictment on federal false statement and weapons charges, officials at the North Carolina Army post said Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
A Fort Liberty soldier with ties to a white supremacist group has been removed from the Army after his indictment on federal false statement and weapons charges, officials at the North Carolina Army post said Wednesday.
Former Pvt. Kai Liam Nix, 20, was separated from the Army on Tuesday after his Aug. 14 indictment, said Col. Mary Ricks, a spokeswoman for the Fort Liberty-based 18th Airborne Corps. Nix was arrested Aug. 15 near Fort Liberty after a federal grand jury indictment accused him of lying about ties to an anti-government organization on a 2022 security clearance application and selling stolen guns.
Nix joined the Army in 2022 and served as an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Liberty until his separation, according to the service. Ricks said he had not deployed since enlisting.
Former Army Pvt. Kai Liam Nix, 20, was separated from the service on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, after he was indicted on charges that he lied about ties to an anti-government organization and selling stolen guns. (Cumberland County, N.C., Jail)
Nix made an initial court appearance on Monday, when a judge ordered him held until his next court appearance scheduled for Thursday, court documents show. A court-appointed attorney for Nix, Robert J. Parrott Jr., did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
The Justice Department said in a statement this week that Nix’s arrest was the result of an investigation by the FBI, ATF and Army Criminal Investigation Division that uncovered that Nix had been “a member of a group dedicated to the use of violence or force to overthrow the U.S. government.” The investigation by the FBI and ATF, or Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is ongoing, according to the Justice Department.
Army regulations bar soldiers from active membership in groups that advocate “supremacist, extremist or criminal gang ideology or causes.”
The Justice Department said Nix lied when he denied membership in such a group on his 2022 SF86 application for a security clearance. The department also charged Nix with a count of dealing in firearms without a license and two counts of selling a stolen firearm.
The charges carry a maximum 30-year prison sentence, according to the Justice Department.
Army officials said the stolen weapons that Nix is accused of selling did not belong to the military. Ricks said the service would continue to cooperate in the federal probe. Nix was not expected to be prosecuted by the military.
The Justice Department declined to name the anti-government organization with which Nix is accused of working. However, the Southern Poverty Law Center identified Nix as a member of the Patriot Front, a white nationalist and neo-fascist hate group. The group describes itself online as aiming to “reclaim America for the European race and defend its sovereignty and cultural independence.” The law center is a nonprofit based in Montgomery, Ala., that specializes in civil rights litigation and monitoring hate groups.
It said the Patriot Front is known to conduct public demonstrations that include neo-Nazi and racist slogans. The group marched through Nashville last month parading a “Reclaim America” banner through the city’s downtown streets and carrying shields.
Nix denied membership in the hate group in an interview with the New Yorker before his arrest. The law center’s Hatewatch publication said it linked Nix to Patriot Front via leaked documents and a Telegram account that he supposedly ran for far-right white supremacists. Nix appeared to have joined the group more than one year before he enlisted in the Army, according to the law center.
