Joe Heim, Devlin Barrett, WaPo this afternoon:

The Justice Department charged James Alex Fields Jr., the driver accused of murdering a counterprotester at last year’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., with multiple hate crimes Wednesday.

The charges include one hate crime act that led to the death of Heather Heyer, a counterprotester who was run over when Fields allegedly drove his car into a throng of anti-racist marchers. Fields also was indicted on 28 counts of hate crimes “causing bodily injury and involving an attempt to kill.” Those charges are related to the dozens of people injured in the same event.

“At the Department of Justice, we remain resolute that hateful ideologies will not have the last word and that their adherents will not get away with violent crimes against those they target,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “Last summer’s violence in Charlottesville cut short a promising young life and shocked the nation. Today’s indictment should send a clear message to every would-be criminal in America that we aggressively prosecute violent crimes of hate that threaten the core principles of our nation.”

One of the counts filed in federal court in Charlottesville carries the possibility of the death penalty, though under Justice Department guidelines it will take months for prosecutors to decide if they would seek execution if Fields, 21, is convicted.

Fields, who has been described by those who know him as a Nazi sympathizer, drove to Charlottesville from Ohio last summer as members of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi organizations and far-right white nationalist groups converged on the city. The groups participated in an Aug. 11 torchlight march through the University of Virginia campus and a “Unite the Right” rally the following day.

Both events were marked by racist and homophobic slurs and chants such as “Jews will not replace us” and “Our blood, our soil!” And both events rapidly descended into violence as marchers and counterprotesters clashed on the streets of the typically placid college town.

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