Washington sheriff warns Idaho Republicans about white nationalist risk | Politics

Knezovich has become best-known for his conflicts with Matt Shea, the controversial Washington state representative. Shea was expelled from the Washington state Republican Caucus in December after an investigation requested by the Washington House of Representatives concluded that he had helped plan an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by Ammon Bundy and far-right militia organizations in the Pacific Northwest and had participated in two other armed conflicts with the federal government.

“The extreme right would have you believe that our police officers are coming to disarm you. Over my dead body, because they are not doing that,” Knezovich said.

While the presentation was mostly identical to ones Knezovich has been giving in Washington for years, he highlighted the connection three Idaho Republicans had to Shea. Reps. Heather Scott, Judy Boyle and Sage Dixon had all attended part of the Malheur standoff in 2016 and were in the room with Shea during a negotiation with the county judge.

Scott’s involvement with the movement extended far beyond that. Reporting by the Inlander and the Washington statehouse investigation found that she and Shea had been connected during a previous armed standoff in 2015 and that she may have been part of an inner circle of politicians connected to the separatist movement.

The militias pushing to overthrow the federal government weren’t the only target for Knezovich during his speech. His list of domestic threats to the safety of America and law enforcement included black nationalist groups, far-left violence by ANTIFA, lone-wolf shooting threats, and the national media. He claimed that the Russian Internet Research Agency had begun using social media to sow distrust and false information in the United States in 2014, linking their influence more to the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri following the Michael Brown shooting than the 2016 election.