[23] Nazzaro has characterized The Base as a "survivalism and self-defense network ... sharing knowledge and training to prepare for crisis situations", but he denies its connections to neo-Nazism.

[31] Before his identity was revealed in January 2020, Nazzaro, known online as "Roman Wolf" and "Norman Spear", was personally involved in active recruitment, with the aim of forming cells in Europe, South Africa and Australia.

Another Australian who went by the name of Volkskrieger was a key person in the recruitment drive, which focused on finding people with legal access to firearms and security licences.

[20][36][37] Richard Tobin and The Base were linked to synagogue vandalism in Racine, Wisconsin, and Hancock, Michigan, which occurred a day apart in September 2019.

[38] Yousef O. Barasneh, a Neo-Nazi Arab whose father immigrated from Amman, spray-painted swastikas and other anti-Semitic symbols and slogans on Beth Israel Sinai Congregation in the city of Racine, Wisconsin sometime between September 15 and 23, 2019.

[39] On 16 January 2020, three members of The Base were arrested by the FBI just before a gun rights protest, 2020 VCDL Lobby Day, was scheduled to be held at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond.

[44] FBI recordings released in November 2021 showed two of the men, Patrik Jordan Mathews and Brian Lemley, discussed mass murder of black persons to trigger a race war; they were both sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2021.

Watkins and Gorman incorrectly believed the home belonged to an "antifa" podcaster, Daniel Harper of I Don't Speak German, and the pair intended to threaten him.

[46][47] According to Vice News, between the attempted intimidation incident and his arrest, leaked chat logs revealed Watkins was planning a "fortified compound" in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

[15] Justen Michael Watkins was the leader of The Base from 2020 until 2021 when Rinaldo Nazzaro retook leadership of the group and reconfigured it in April 2021 to "protect it from infiltrators".

[57] Jason Lee Van Dyke, the former lawyer and one-time leader of the Proud Boys, was alleged in 2020 to have tried to plot the assassination of a rival,[58] attempted to join the Base, but was denied membership for being a "huge liability".

[59] In an effort to convince the group's leaders that he should be allowed to join the Base and would be a productive member, Van Dyke offered up his expertise in weapons training and his property in Decatur, Texas for a paramilitary camp.

Earlier, on 16 August 2019, Mathews had been outed as organizing a terrorist cell for The Base and Atomwaffen in Manitoba via undercover reporting by the Winnipeg Free Press.

[69] Arrested in January 2020, Mathews and Brian M. Lemley Jr., 33, pleaded guilty to weapons charges in Greenbelt, Maryland, and were sentenced in October 2021 to nine years in prison.

In January 2020, Lane and two accomplices, Jacob Oliver Kaderli and Michael John Helterbrand [71] were arrested for allegedly stockpiling weapons and plotting to kill a couple they thought were anti-fascist and their young children.

In preparation, Lane, along with dozen other people, engaged in paramilitary training, consumed psychedelic drugs, sacrificed a ram, and drank its blood in an occult ritual on his property.