Man pleads guilty to neo-Nazi-inspired plot to bomb Nashville energy facility: DOJ

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Tuesday to plotting to using a weapon of mass destruction in a neo-Nazi-inspired plot to destroy an energy facility near Nashville, the Justice Department announced.

Skyler Philippi, 24, was arrested last November over his plans to attack Nashville’s power grid with a drone armed with explosives. According to the DOJ, charging documents showed Philippi conducted extensive research into how such an attack could serve to “shock the system,” as he relayed to one FBI confidential source who became aware of his plotting.

The FBI first began investigating Philippi last June after a confidential source who was in touch with him reported to the FBI his desire to commit a mass shooting at a YMCA near Columbia, Tennessee, according to prosecutors. Philippi also repeatedly espoused his adherence to white supremacist and accelerationist ideologies which promote the idea that a destabilizing terrorist attack on something like the nation’s energy sectors could serve to incite unrest that leads to civil war, prosecutors said.

“I definitely want to hit Nashville, like one hundred percent, I want to get Nashville,” Philippi said in one meeting recorded by undercover agents, according to charging documents. “I also know Louisville pretty g—— well, since I lived there. I spent about five months scouting out every single place [power station] and even coming up with a game plan to hit it as fast as I could. I had whole maps made, printed out on paper, to actually do that.”

In September of last year, Philippi and undercover FBI employees drove to an electrical substation he had allegedly researched previously. While in transit, Philippi ordered what he believed would be the equivalent of C-4 explosives from the informants, according to charging documents.

During their recon mission to the substation, agents recorded Philippi stating, “Holy s—. This will go up like a f—— Fourth of July firework,” charging documents said.

In a meeting days before his arrest, Philippi participated in a Nordic ritual and told the undercover agents “this is where the New Age begins,” and that it was “time to do something big” that would be remembered “in the annals of history,” according to the charging documents.

Philippi then drove with the FBI employees to the site of his operation and, as the undercover agents moved to their assigned positions as lookouts, he powered up the drone with what he believed was the explosive device attached to it, charging documents said. Philippi was then taken into custody.

The charging documents included one image that shows Philippi conducting a test of the drone, as well as another photo of him with the FBI undercover agents showing off what he believed were explosive devices.

Philippi faces a maximum penalty of life in prison in connection with his guilty plea. Sentencing is currently set for Jan. 8, 2026.