An accused white supremacist who called for a race-based civil war online to thousands of his followers was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three and a half years in prison on multiple firearms offenses.
Paul Nicholas Miller, 33, sobbed in court as a judge sentenced him to 41 months in prison.
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His imprisonment will be followed by three years of supervised release for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon in 2018, possessing ammunition as a convicted felon in 2021, and possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle in 2021, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said.
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Earlier this year, feds raided Miller's Fort Lauderdale home and discovered an unregistered short-barreled rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside.
"Miller admitted that he had bought the ammunition and that he had tried to build his own rifle in part to learn about firearms manufacturing in preparation for a coming civil war," prosecutors said in a news release. "In the months immediately before his arrest, Miller had made hundreds of internet posts publicizing his animosity towards various minority groups and his support for the initiation of a race-based civil war in the United States."
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Investigators were suspicious of Miller's social media activity, connecting him as being sympathetic toward and affiliated with the extreme right-wing group the Proud Boys.
Prosecutors portrayed Miller as a man with a large following on social media who spread hate encouraged 42,000 of his followers to spread hate too. Miller regularly used racial slurs and jokes while dressed as comic book characters, including The Joker.
