Hal Turner

Harold Charles "Hal" Turner (born March 15, 1962) is an American far-right political commentator and convicted felon from North Bergen, New Jersey.

Turner's viewpoints typically encompass Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, white supremacy, and have included calls for assassination of government officials. In August 2010, he was convicted for making threats against three federal judges with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, for which he spent two years in prison.

Turner has sporadically hosted ''The Hal Turner Show'', usually on shortwave radio station WBCQ, since 2002, as well as a corresponding blog, which has changed URLs frequently and has spread hoaxes and fake news.

Early life

Turner was born in Jersey City and raised in Union City and from age five in Ridgefield Park, where he attended Ridgefield Park High School. Prior to working on radio, Turner worked as a driver and a salesman.

Early career

Identifying himself as "Hal from North Bergen", Turner became notable in American conservative circles as a frequent caller to and supporter of WABC radio talk show hosts Bob Grant and Sean Hannity. Turner parlayed this fame into a role as the northern New Jersey coordinator for Patrick J. Buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign.

Turner claims he established a friendship with Sean Hannity, on whose radio program he had once been a frequent presence. In 2008, while Hannity and Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party were debating Barack Obama's association with Jeremiah Wright, Shabazz asked Hannity if he should "be judged by (his) promotion and association with Hal Turner". Hannity began to say that he didn't know Turner, but then said he was someone he had banned from his radio program ten years before. Turner subsequently gave an account of their association on his website, in which he said of Hannity's response: "I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first tried to say he didn't know me. In fact, Sean does know me and we were quite friendly a few years ago." Phil Boyce, Program Director of WABC, disputed the account, which described a friendship developing between Turner and Hannity in 1993, three years before Hannity was actually hired at WABC.

Turner became a talk radio host, joining fellow regular callers Frank from Queens and John from Staten Island to start the program ''The Right Perspective''. Turner left the program in 2002, citing artistic differences. In 2002, Turner became a solo host, purchasing a time slot on shortwave radio station WBCQ, over which he broadcast for approximately four years. On WBCQ on March 22, 2004, he left the show "after harshly criticizing his supporters, listeners, and WBCQ." The show lacked financial support and Turner had health problems, leading to the temporary closure of his website and show.

Activism and assault claims

In the 2000 US congress election, Turner sought the Republican Party nomination for election to the United States Congress from New Jersey's 13th congressional district. He received 18.6% of the vote, losing to Theresa de Leon. Turner has identified himself as the "Chairman of the Republican Party of Hudson County, NJ Corp," a group which has no connection to the official Hudson County Republican Party recognized by the state and national party. According to news reports, Hudson County Republican officials have stated that Turner's party is a "paper corporation with little or no membership".

In response to an October 7, 2005, assault against a white student by a Black student at Kingston High School, Turner, working with the white nationalist group National Vanguard, organized a rally which he called a "rally against violence". He characterized the rally as both "pro-white" and "against violence". The victim's mother chose not to attend the rally. In response, local residents, including political and religious leaders, organized a number of "Unity Rallies" with a tolerance theme. When the rally occurred on November 19, 2005, Turner and the National Vanguard attracted approximately 50 demonstrators, compared to the 100 counter-demonstrators. Turner called for the attacker to be charged with a hate crime, but the case resulted in the perpetrator being indicted as an adult with two felony counts: assault and attempted assault instead.

On April 12, 2006, Turner had a physical altercation with Jaime Vazquez, a former Jersey City deputy mayor and a member of the Jersey City Council, who was the Jersey City Commissioner of Veterans Affairs at the time. ''The North Bergen Reporter'' quoted Turner as saying "(t)he illegal immigrants are breaking the law, and people like me should break the law as well by shooting them down." In response, Vazquez picketed with a sign reading "Hal Turner — shoot me! Racists and bigots like you are cowards." This was followed by a physical confrontation, during which Vazquez suffered a back injury and a fractured wrist. Turner and Vazquez later filed criminal charges against each other. On July 16, 2006 North Bergen Municipal Court Judge Joseph Romano found both men to be equally credible and thus neither criminally liable.

Broadcasting and website issues

In 2002, Turner started broadcasting, but quit the show in July 2008 and resumed broadcasting it in April 2009 as the Turner Radio Network. In August 2008 his website also closed. Although he retained a blog, it was shut down by his host, Google's Blogger, for violations of terms of service.

Origin of China eminent domain hoax

In February 2009, Turner posted an article on his blog entitled: "FEDS GRANT EMINENT DOMAIN AS COLLATERAL TO CHINA FOR U.S. DEBTS!" claiming that a secret agreement had been made to allow China to physically take U.S. land, in the event of a U.S. default. The story created "hundreds of identical Internet replications" according to Snopes.

Anonymous website raid

Turner stated that in December 2006 and January 2007 individuals who identified themselves as members of the group Anonymous took Turner's website offline, costing him thousands of dollars in bandwidth bills. On January 19, 2007, Turner sued 4chan, eBaum's World, 7chan, Abjects IRC network, and other websites for copyright infringement. On January 22, 2007, he lost his plea for an injunction. In February 2007 4chan responded to the lawsuit. In April 2007, the judge asked the parties to submit information to schedule proceedings. However, Turner failed to respond. Mail from the court to Turner was returned as "Undeliverable". The judge dismissed the case in December 2007.

FBI informant

Turner was a paid informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for several years, supplying information about right-wing groups to federal agents. The original allegations that Turner acted as an informant for the FBI surfaced in 2008 after unidentified hackers claimed on Turner's website's forums that they had read email correspondences between him and an FBI agent, apparently his handler. This led to a discussion on a neo-Nazi website on January 10, 2008, in which Turner revealed that he was quitting political work, ending his radio show and separating "from the 'pro-White' movement". The FBI has declined to comment on the matter. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League reported on the emails that "a neo-Nazi Website had posted material reportedly found by the hackers, including alleged exchanges between himself and law enforcement agents which indicated that Turner had been providing information to them."

On July 28, 2009, in a Chicago courtroom, Turner's defense lawyer said that Turner worked as a paid informant for the FBI. In December 2009, '' The Record'' published an investigative report on Turner's "complex" relationship with the FBI and Federal U.S. Marshal Service, noting that all parties broke off contact at several points.

Turner's information led to the arrests of the Hutaree

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