A white supremacist known for his inflammatory Internet postings about race-related issues — and his verbal attacks on the people involved in them — has been charged with threatening a federal juror.

William A. White, commander of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party, was being held without bond today in the Roanoke jail.

White was arrested late Friday afternoon and charged with obstruction of justice, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said today.

Bondurant said the charge involves the "threatened use of force" against the foreman of a Chicago jury in the case of Matthew Hale, who was convicted in 2004 of soliciting the murder of a U.S. District Court judge.

At the time, Hale was the leader of the World Church of the Creator, which adhered to some of the same neo-Nazi beliefs as White’s organization.

Bondurant declined to comment on the details of the alleged threat, except to say that White’s trial will be held in Chicago.

In an interview earlier this week, White said he recently posted information about a juror in the Hale case to his Web site, Overthrow.com. White said he included personal information about the juror, but made no threats in discussing what he said were his concerns about the fairness of Hale’s trial.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama organization that monitors hate groups, said on its Web site that White did not directly propose violence against the juror in that case.

It was not clear, however, if the conduct described by both White and the SPLC is related to the federal charge against him.

According to the SPLC blog item, White posted the name, home address and several phone numbers of the so-called "Gay, Jewish, anti-racist" juror who helped convict Hale.

In 2005, Hale was sentenced to 40 years in prison for encouraging his head of security, who turned out to be a federal informant, to kill Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow. The judge had previously ruled against Hale in a trademark infringement case involving the name of his organization.

In his September posting, White "told his readers that the [juror] played a leading role in inciting both the conviction and the harsh sentence that followed," the SPLC blog post states. "He also described the conviction as wrongful and said the prison term handed Hale was a ‘criminally long sentence.’ "

Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said Thursday that while White has often come close to the line between free speech and criminal activity, he may have finally crossed it by posting personal information about a juror.

Federal authorities are particularly sensitive about protecting jurors in cases such as Hale’s, Potok said.

One week ago, FBI agents seized computer equipment from White. Several days later, White posted what he said was a copy of the search warrant to a Yahoo message group.

The warrant authorized FBI agents to search a Patterson Avenue building that houses White’s online operation. According to the warrant, authorities were looking for computer files and other records "that may contain all evidence of the crime of threatening Hale Juror A."

The warrant also covers "documents, photographs or other information that shows an intent to intimidate or injure persons whose personal information has been posted in the same manor [sic] as Hale Juror A."

Since the FBI raid, Overthrow.com has been down.

In a posting to a Yahoo message group for white supremacists, made either late Thursday night or sometime during the day Friday, someone identifying himself as White said the FBI had just executed a second search warrant, this one on his home.

"They left remarking on how they did not have anything with which to chargesme [sic] and they needed to plan theyre [sic] next step," the post stated.

With White now in jail, the next step will be an initial appearance before a magistrate judge, which could happen as early as Sunday afternoon.