Feds seek to seize funds from white supremacist convicted in deadly Charlottesville car attack

By Scott MacFarlane

Updated on: February 20, 2023 / 10:24 PM / CBS News

Washington — The Justice Department is seeking to seize money that has been contributed to the white supremacist who rammed his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one person, at the infamous "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

In court filings reviewed by CBS News, federal prosecutors in December told the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia that James Alex Fields Jr. had a total of $759.86 in his "inmate trust account," which prisoners can use to purchase snacks and goods from the prison commissary. Fields protested the motion in a handwritten filing of his own last month, and the court set a deadline of Tuesday for the government to respond.

The Unite the Right rally drew hundreds of self-professed white nationalists to Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017, to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Fields, who is from Maumee, Ohio, rammed his car into a crowd of demonstrators protesting the gathering before backing up and speeding away.

The attack killed Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist, and injured dozens of others. Fields, now 25, eventually confessed and pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges. He is serving a life sentence in federal prison in Springfield, Missouri.

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