(The Center Square) – A Tennessee man the Justice Department said plotted to destroy an electric substation with an explosive pleaded guilty on Tuesday, officials said.
Skyler Philippi, 24, of Columbia, planned to destroy the substation by flying a drone containing the explosives into the substation, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. He was arrested at the site in November with the drone next to the explosive device after participating in a Nordic ritual with undercover employees, the department said.
Philippi pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced on Jan. 8.
“Motivated by a violent ideology, Philippi wanted ‘to do something big.’ Instead, the FBI disrupted his plans, and Philippi now awaits sentencing,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.
Philippi first told confidential informants in June 2024 that he wanted to conduct a mass shooting at a YMCA in the Columbia area.
The plot changed in July, when Philippi told another informant he wanted to attack a large substation using the drone and TATP, Triacetone Triperoxide, a high-energy explosive material, or C-4 explosive, the release said. Philippi told an undercover employee that he wrote a manifesto about his wish to attack “high tax cities or industrial areas” and used a slur against Jews to say he hoped they would lose money, the Justice Department said.
The undercover employee sold Philippi the components to make the explosives.
“Philippi texted: ‘If you want to do the most damage as an accelerationist, attack high economic, high tax, political zones in every major metropolis,'” the Justice Department said.
It gave Philippi’s expletive-laden response indicating major fireworks like the Fourth of July.
“Skyler Philippi planned to attack an energy facility with a drone containing explosives, which had the potential to knock out power to thousands of American homes and to critical facilities like hospitals,” said Assistant Director Donald Holstead of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. “Through rigorous investigation, his plan was disrupted.”
