Spokane7
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June 14, 2010 in Idaho
North Idaho attorney charged in murder-for-hire plot
Edgar J. Steele
(Full-size photo)
A North Idaho attorney who defended the Aryan Nations and its founder, Richard Butler, is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday on charges he arranged to have his wife and mother-in-law killed.
Edgar J. Steele, 64, was arrested Friday at his Sagle home and charged in the murder-for-hire plot. That was the day the women were to be killed in a car crash meant to look like an accident, according to a probable-cause affidavit.
The hearing had been set for Monday afternoon in federal court in Coeur d’Alene but was postponed a day after the courthouse received a letter containing a suspicious white powder and was evacuated. Federal offices in Spokane and Bellevue also received the suspicious deliveries, and the FBI is investigating.
A confidential witness occasionally employed by Steele met with the FBI Wednesday and told agents Steele would pay him to murder the women, according to the Idaho Statesman.
The witness said Steele had discussed a list of people he wanted dead, including his wife and her mother, six months earlier, the newspaper reported. The witness agreed to the plot and accepted travel money, court documents say.
According to the affidavit, the witness was supposed to kill the women Friday because Steele had an alibi for that day. So agents concealed a device on the informant and recorded Steele planning the murders, the document said.
“The United States magistrate had found probable cause for the offense,” said Traci Whelan, an assistant U.S. attorney for Idaho. “As for the timing of the arrest, it was prudent, given he had apparently set a deadline for it.”
Steele is well known from his work for hate groups such as the Aryan Nations and other high-profile clients, including the McGuckin family, who held off police during a 2001 Idaho standoff. He’s also known for vocal anti-semitic and racist rants on the Internet.
Read the Idaho Statesman story.
Sandpoint Arbor Day is Saturday 
spokanada on June 14 at 10:06 a.m.
Have fun in prison Edgar!
PhiltheBibliophil on June 14 at 10:46 a.m.
Hopefully they’ll finally nail this Racist SOB! And assign him to a maximum security prison just chock full of the non-Aryan Brothers!
Hcklbery on June 14 at 11:52 a.m.
THIS ONLY PROVIDES FURTHER REAL EVIDENCE THAT WHAT LIES BEHIND THE THIN VENEER OF THEIR CLAIMS OF A CAUSE FOR HUMANITY IS MURDER AND TYRANNY AT THE POINT OF A GUN, THE SAME AS HITLER WHOM THEY REVERE.
Albert on June 14 at 12:25 p.m.
I understand that he also provides marriage counseling services :)
Charlie on June 14 at 2:39 p.m.
Nice booking photo Edgar. Now we may have a real “jailhouse lawyer.”
Silas on June 15 at 11:08 a.m.
Is this another example of what we saw with the Hutaree Militia? A bunch of guys sitting around drinkin’ beer and cracking jokes or other poor discussions all the while being caught on tape and having it twisted into an evil plot? Or how about Randy Weaver and the Fed’s using a provocateur? Or Waco?
Cos I sure wouldn’t be surprised. If Steele has been in and out of the courthouse as a lawyer, I really can’t see him being stupid enough to think that this would work.
This smells fishy. Big time.
panamaniak on October 21 at 5:20 a.m.
Lol! Good for him! This is the same guy I was reading an article on a few months ago. This is the same guy who wanted to boycott TV shows,movies,magazines,etc if they had Blacks in them.It would easier to pour bleach in your eyes so then can’t see them,lol! I’ve never heard anything more absurd in my life. But seriously guys like this they NEVER learn. NOTHING positive(to normal folks) ever comes out of these anti-government,racist organizations. You get either death (usually an inside job and not from the folks you “hate” and claim is your “natural” enemy,odd isn’t it?) like George Lincoln Rockwell,Bob Matthews or David Lane. Or you get so much prison time that it makes you head spin like Matt Hale. My question is to these “people” is: Was it worth it? Yeah I may be your so-called “natural” enemy(eventhough I don’t know you and really don’t lay awake in “fear” of what’s going on with the Neo-Nazi-KKK-Patriot “movement” you really aren’t important to me) but I have my FREEDOM! Lol!