White nationalist who lied about "training" Parkland shooter just got charged

Jordan Jereb told the whole world that he’d trained the Parkland shooter with his Tallahassee-based white nationalist militia. That was a lie, and he’s now been charged for giving a false report to law enforcement.

After 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February, Jereb told multiple media outlets and law enforcement that the shooter had done paramilitary training with him and his white nationalist group.

Jereb, who’s in his early 20s and lives with his mother in Tallahassee, is a member of a small group called the Republic of Florida, an alt-right militia of about a dozen members that once printed its own money, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported. The day after the Feb. 14 shooting, he began telling media and law enforcement that he and his group trained the shooter, but he couldn’t provide any information about the gunman or the training, and he lived hundreds of miles away from the shooter.

READ: White supremacist tries to walk back made-up story about Nikolas Cruz, blames media

“He probably used that training to do what he did yesterday. Nobody I know told him to do that; he just freaked out,” Jereb told the Daily Beast at the time.

The Sheriff’s office told The Tallahassee Democrat that investigators didn’t find any connections between Jereb and the shooter. But Jereb’s statements to law enforcement helped the FBI, state and local police receive a search warrant for his home.

Jereb was already on probation for an unrelated extortion case that barred him from having any weapons, including knives. Once law enforcement gained access to his home, agents removed computers, documents, cell phones, and two KA 6 tactical knives, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported.

On March 21, Jereb was taken into custody for violating his probation by owning the knives. Then, on Tuesday, he was charged for giving a false report to law enforcement. He walked back his claims about training the shooter, saying he’d lied because he was tired and confused about names.

Jereb is still in custody in the Leon County Detention Facility. He has plead not guilty to the false report charge and is scheduled for a hearing on May 23, according to Lieutenant Grady Jordan, public information officer of Leon County Sheriff's Office.

Cover image: Teens walk out from school escorted by police, following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)