COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) — An attorney known for representing white supremacists is set to go on trial in federal court, charged with hiring a hit man to kill his wife and mother-in-law.
Edgar J. Steele’s wife insists her husband is innocent and has been set up by the government because of his anti-Semitic, white supremacist views and for representing clients such as Aryan Nations.
Federal prosecutors say they have recordings of him talking with the hit man about killing his wife. Prosecutors say Steele was after insurance money and wanted to pursue a woman in Ukraine.
Steele is known in anti-Semitic and white supremacist circles for defending Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler in 2000. Steele lost the case, and Aryan Nations was bankrupted after being ordered to pay $6.3 million to the victims.
