Massachusetts Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Russian Plutonium
Left 33%
Center 0%
Right 67%
1 left · 0 center · 2 right
What happened
Jacob D. Miller, 44, of South Hadley, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to importing nuclear material without lawful authority, mailing hazardous materials, being a felon in possession of ammunition and of explosive materials, and possession of child pornography. Federal prosecutors said Miller, convicted in Massachusetts in 2004 of possessing child pornography and an explosive device, imported plutonium from Russia and, through a business called Collect The Periodic Table and a third-party retailer, sold it to about 67 customers in the United States and abroad between December 30, 2020, and March 31, 2025, shipping it via the U.S. mail despite a prohibition on mailing the substance; they said he also sold toxic thallium to about 71 customers. An April 2025 search of his residence recovered firearms, ammunition, explosive powder, and child sexual abuse material on his laptop and cellphone; he was arrested on April 9, 2025, indicted on April 17, and has remained in federal custody. Sentencing before U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni is scheduled for January 21, and prosecutors have said he faces a possible sentence of 46 years or more.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 3 articles
3 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 3 of 3
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts and US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 2 of 3
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: indictment, court filing, search warrant
- Credits another outlet 0 of 3
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 3
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Oct 6, 02:07 UTC by NBC News, naming its source. First document 2 hours later, from Fox News (indictment).
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Right-leaning coverage is the only side that sizes a second illegal mail business running beside the plutonium sales. Fox News reports thallium went to about 71 customers. Those shipments began in 2017, years before the plutonium orders. Left-leaning coverage lists thallium among the elements for sale but never says how many people received it or that it, too, was banned from the mail. Without that count, the case reads as a plutonium story with a chemical footnote.
Word choice splits on the defendant. The New York Post calls him a "pedophile". Left-leaning coverage never uses that label and identifies a Massachusetts man who is a felon.
How much plutonium actually shipped, and what became of the people who bought it?
Bottom line
A reader of NBC News never learns the same guilty plea covers thallium mailed to 71 customers, a bigger list than the plutonium buyers that outlet does count.
The receipts — 4 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Sold thallium to about 71 customers
- Faces a possible prison term of 46 years or more
- A 2002 search of his residence found an apparent rocket launcher, a pipe bomb, and video of him setting off improvised explosive devices
- Child sexual abuse material on his laptop and phone had been opened as recently as the day before the search warrant
The Left View
NBC News frames the plea as a federal radioactive-materials case, leading with a “Massachusetts man” and listing the nuclear-import and hazardous-mail counts alongside the felon-possession and child-pornography charges rather than making any single count the story. It stays close to the U.S. attorney’s statement, quoting prosecutors’ claim of a “long-standing and unlawful obsession with explosives, dangerous chemicals and radioactive substances dating back to at least 2002,” and adding earlier details from that record—a 2002 search that found “an apparent rocket launcher,” a pipe bomb, and video of improvised explosive devices, plus a later state warning about alleged depleted-uranium sales on eBay. Coverage notes that Miller’s lawyer did not immediately comment and that consecutive counts could yield 46 years or more, or less if served concurrently.
The Right View
Fox News and the New York Post lead with Miller’s status as a “felon” and, in the Post, a “convicted Massachusetts pedophile” and “creep entrepreneur,” tying the Russian plutonium sales to his prior child-pornography and explosives convictions. They stress the Russia origin, the dozens of customers, and that prohibited plutonium and thallium went through the U.S. mail; the Post adds that plutonium “can be used for nuclear weapons” and is “a deadly poison if it enters one’s body,” and that thallium is “odorless, tasteless, and slow-acting.” Both highlight that child sexual abuse material was found on devices he had opened “as recently as the day before the search warrant,” language the Post calls “disturbingly” uncovered, and Fox notes he has remained in federal custody since arrest.
Our Take (balanced)
NBC’s strongest argument is that the charging record itself—from the 2002 explosives cache through unauthorized plutonium imports and illegal mailing—documents a sustained dangerous-materials crime, which prosecutors called a “long-standing and unlawful obsession” and which they said could draw decades in prison. Fox and the New York Post’s strongest argument is that a man already convicted of child pornography and possessing an explosive device still imported Russian plutonium and shipped it to dozens of customers while holding guns, explosive powder, and recently viewed child sexual abuse material, making his prior record and the Russia-sourced radioactivity the defining facts. The unresolved tension is which fact is the center of gravity: a hazardous-materials trafficking case with a long explosives-and-chemicals history, or a repeat sex-offender felon who obtained and sold Russian radioactive material.
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