Prosecutors in the US have charged a far-right podcaster after guns were found in the basement of his house. The ‘alt-right’ podcaster has strong anti-government views. The arsenal of weapons found in his house in Pennsylvania includes machine guns. Joseph Paul Berger (32) has been charged along with his father Joseph Raymond Berger (67).
The charges include several firearms offenses including possessing machine guns and possessing non-registered guns and silencers. The prosecutors say that the guns that were obtained from Berger’s home include two MP5K submachine guns, one RPK-style machine gun, eight AK-style rifles, two C308 .308 Winchester caliber rifles.
The father-son duo has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The defence lawyer claims that Berger has not incited any real-life violence and that views presented in the podcast only represented political expression.
In one of the podcast episode, Berger had said “white man with a rifle can be very dangerous to the system indeed if he has the right motivation”. The quote was cited by The Guardian taken from filing of the prosecution in the court.
While filing charges, the prosecutors have argued that Berger was a “danger to community” and if released there was a risk of him running away.
