Author: Atlanta Antifa

  • Devin Brosnahan of Augusta, Georgia: Neo-Nazi, “White Lives Matter” Organizer, and Emergency Medical Technician

    Devin Brosnahan of Augusta, Georgia: Neo-Nazi, “White Lives Matter” Organizer, and Emergency Medical Technician

    Update 3/14/2023: After several requests for information, Aiken County Emergency Medical Services has clarified that Devin Brosnahan is no longer employed with them. Please get in touch if you have information on Brosnahan’s current employers.

    Summary: Devin Brosnahan is a neo-Nazi leader in Augusta, Georgia. Under the alias “Levi Savage,” Brosnahan leads the Georgia chapter of White Lives Matter. Last year, we appealed for information on “Levi” after we had identified Hunter Forsyth as another White Lives Matter administrator. Now, we can explain how we identified “Levi” while outlining his racist and antisemitic activity with White Lives Matter and other groups. Brosnahan works as an emergency medical technician, an alarming job for a committed and active neo-Nazi. Online records indicate that last year he worked for Aiken County Emergency Medical Services across the state line in South Carolina. Aiken County EMS must clarify whether Brosnahan remains an employee, as he is an obvious danger to those around him and to those he would be expected to provide aid to.

    Introduction

    Devin Daniel Brosnahan

    In December, we appealed for information on a white nationalist operating under the alias “Levi Savage.” “Levi” was an administrator for the White Lives Matter – Georgia (WLM – GA) channel on the Telegram messaging application. As well as his WLM – GA activities, he targeted neighborhoods with propaganda for the hardcore antisemitic Goyim Defense League (GDL). In an appearance on an online fascist broadcast, “Levi” claimed that his job was “basically an ambulance driver” and stated that his racist worldview helps him to “deal” at work. We had already traced “Levi” to the metro Augusta, Georgia area and determined several specific details about him. For example, we learned that he had a close connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in his earlier life, although his relationship with the church might have soured. 

    Devin Brosnahan: 2022 employee at Aiken County Emergency Medical Services (South Carolina)

    We can now identify “Levi” as Devin Daniel Brosnahan, born on October 6, 2000 and currently living in Augusta. Brosnahan is a licensed Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), with online records showing that last year he worked for Aiken County Emergency Medical Services in South Carolina—just across the state line from Augusta. If Brosnahan continues to work as an EMT, he is a potential life-endangering threat to every person of color, LGBTQ+ individual, or Jewish person he encounters. With the publication of this article, we call on Aiken County Emergency Medical Services to clarify whether Brosnahan still works for them. Any emergency medical service employing Brosnahan endangers vulnerable people and must fire the neo-Nazi immediately.

    Identification of White Lives Matter’s “Levi Savage” as Devin Brosnahan

    Phone number used by “Levi Savage” shows the name “Devin” when entered in CashApp

    In our December 2022 appeal for information on “Levi,” we mentioned that we had discovered a Utah phone number used by “Spartan Levi”—one of “Levi’s” aliases—on the Signal messaging application, after we investigated an anti-trans flyer distributed by his network in Georgia. We got our first real break in identifying “Levi,” when we discovered that this phone number showed the name “Devin” when we entered it on CashApp, an electronic payments application. A source with knowledge of the white power scene in Augusta who had met Devin Brosnahan in person independently confirmed that this was “Levi’s” actual first name.

    Devin Brosnahan licensed as EMT in Georgia

    Knowing that “Levi” worked in emergency medical services, and following up on the lead that his actual name was “Devin,” we searched for that first name on the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) personnel lookup service. We retrieved over fifty “Devin” names from this search, but the DPH system marked a much smaller number as “Active.” Of these individuals, only a handful received their initial Emergency Medical Technician licenses in the last two years. We soon discovered that one of these licensees, Devin Brosnahan, had an address in Augusta, Georgia. Every detail matched the tip we received from  source.

    Devin Brosnahan licensed as EMT in South Carolina

    Devin Brosnahan received his initial EMT license in Georgia in December 2022. This did not fit the chronology in our earlier appeal for information: “Levi” appeared on  a fascist internet broadcast in early 2022 and stated that he had been working in emergency medical services for approximately “six months.” However, looking up Brosnahan’s name in the South Carolina online licensure portal showed that he was licensed as an EMT in that state since April 2021. This fits the sequence of events in “Levi’s” interview much better. (We believe “six months” was a rough estimate.) We also found online records revealing that in 2022, Devin Brosnahan was employed as an EMT in Aiken County, South Carolina, just across state lines from the address we found for him in Augusta.

    Devin Brosnahan’s old Twitter bio mentioning Provo, Utah, early 2020

    Information we gathered on “Levi” closely matched the details of Devin Brosnahan’s life. For example, the Google Voice phone number used by “Levi” had a Utah area code and was part of a block of numbers initially designated for Provo, Utah. On the “White Biocentrism” forum operated by the white supremacist National Alliance, “Levi Savage” mentioned doing “nationalist activism” in Utah, but now living in Georgia. We discovered that Devin Brosnahan maintained a Twitter account—now deleted—using the address @devinbrosnahan and then later @spongeopolis. On this Twitter account in early 2020, Devin Brosnahan mentioned Provo in his profile bio, as well as “UVU”—Utah Valley University in nearby Orem, Utah. Further tying Brosnahan to Provo, an old profile on LinkedIn for “Devin B.,” a sales associate at Clearlink in Provo, Utah, still shows up when one searches his name on that website.

    When doing an interview with the “Eagle’s Nest” fascist broadcast in February 2022, “Levi” claimed that “I’ve been aware of emergency medical services all my life […] it’s been a big background for me”. This would certainly be true for Devin Brosnahan, whose father works as an Emergency Medicine Physician at Augusta hospitals. Devin Brosnahan’s grandfather on his mother’s side of the family also has a medical background—he was a doctor and professor at Atlanta’s Emory University School of Medicine—as well as holding office within the LDS Church.

    Reddit user “Spongeopolis” on r/exmormon board. Note that “Spongeopolis” is also likely the author of the deleted first post.

    Devin Brosnahan had already joined the white nationalist movement before he began using his “Levi Savage” alias. When Brosnahan changed his Twitter handle to @spongeopolis, he removed the location information on his bio and replaced it with the hashtag #AmericaFirst, a slogan adopted by the white nationalist “groyper” movement. In mid-2020, the @spongeopolis Twitter account also shared propaganda for the “groypers,” such as retweeting the now-deleted NationalistTV account. Devin Brosnahan used the “Spongeopolis” alias elsewhere on the web. Under this alias, he posted regularly to the r/exmormon board on Reddit. (That Reddit account has deleted its main posts, but its remaining comments are enough to confidently identify the account holder as Devin Brosnahan.) On Amazon.com in August 2020, an account under the name “Spongeopolis”—Brosnahan’s consistent alias—posted a negative review of a critical book about women in the white nationalist movement, portraying the book as “an attack on the nuclear family” filled with “lies and deception”.

    2020 review on Amazon by “Spongeopolis”—a known handle used by Brosnahan

    Three final bits of information cinch our identification of Devin Brosnahan as “Levi Savage.” These are: “Levi’s” recorded speeches, his targeted placement of WLM flyers, and his house.

    Metadata: Speech by “Levi”
    Metadata: audio file posted by Devin Brosnahan

    In our appeal for information about “Levi,” we noted that in 2021 “Levi” supplied five audio speeches to Amerikaner, a white nationalist propaganda project. These speeches were circulated through the syndication for “Achtung! Amerikaner” podcast, in versions that contained music playing in the background. However, we also found one of these speeches—“Collectivization is an Evolutionary Advantage”—posted directly on the Amerikaner website, in a version without background music. This raw version appears to be a file supplied directly by “Levi”. Examining the metadata for that audio file, we found that its encoding was “Sony IC Recorder MP3 3.1.2”. As “spongeopolis,” Devin Brosnahan also posted an audio file online—a recording of a hymn composed by his maternal grandmother, which was performed in 2019 at her funeral. Metadata on this file shows the same encoding—type, version number, and bitrate—as the raw audio of the speech by “Levi”.

    “Levi” placing posters on Camp Helaman property, February 2022. From video posted on White Lives Matter telegram channel for Georgia.

    “Levi’s” propaganda activity in metro Augusta also points to his identity. The first White Lives Matter video clip we identified as created by “Levi” was released to the Georgia chapter’s Telegram channel in early February 2022. This clip showed him attaching WLM flyers to poles at Camp Helaman in Evans, Georgia, a nonprofit-operated camp used by the Latter-day Saints community. It was clear to us that “Levi” meant to target this specific religious community with the racist propaganda. In the video posted to WLM – GA, “Levi” also blurred out the camp sign from footage, as though identifying this location would offer a clue to his identity. 

    As mentioned earlier, Devin Brosnahan left an internet trail even before his “Levi” persona. Under his earlier “Spongeopolis” handle, Brosnahan wrote on the r/exmormon Reddit board about his alienation from the LDS faith and about not openly leaving the church in order to maintain relationships. If Brosnahan wanted to reach young members of the LDS community with racist propaganda but not act with open hostility toward that church in his own name, placing flyers anonymously would be a suitable tactic. Identifying Camp Helaman does indeed lead to “Levi’s” identity, since Devin Brosnahan’s father was listed as the camp’s Vice President in IRS filings from 2020, and his mother, the camp’s secretary. His family history with the camp presumably meant that if Devin Brosnahan were seen around this private property, few questions would be asked.

    Interior from White Lives Matter – Georgia video
    Interior from property listing for Devin Brosnahan’s home

    Later in February 2022, the WLM GA channel on Telegram shared two videos of different WLM banners placed on the Wheeler Road overpass above I-520 in Augusta, which were done as part of a WLM “Day of Activism.” One of these videos was created by WLM GA administrator Hunter Forsyth and the other by “Levi”—the two appear to have met up in Augusta to do racist “activism” together. Wheeler Road is the nearest overpass to Devin Brosnahan’s address in Augusta. Further, the video of “Levi’s” WLM banner begins with a time-lapse sequence of the banner being painted, which shows the interior of a home. Comparing this interior from the WLM video to online photographs of the Center Court Drive property listed as Devin Brosnahan’s home shows that they are the same space. Flooring, wall color, trim, and room layout all match exactly, as do the positions of a light switch and a thermostat by a room entrance. Considered altogether, the evidence is overwhelming: neo-Nazi activist “Levi Savage” and Devin Brosnahan are the same person.

    Early Neo-Nazi Activity in Georgia

    In our initial piece on “Levi,” we mentioned his white supremacist affiliations and set out some of his racist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ agitation in our state. Now that we have identified “Levi” as Devin Brosnahan, we provide another overview of this activity, including some information which we have learned since our first article. 

    While we do not know the exact time of Brosnahan’s return to Georgia from Utah, his South Carolina EMT license was granted in April 2021. The same month, Amerikaner—a white nationalist propaganda project focused on “flyover country”—began posting audio speeches by “Levi,” with five of these speeches shared during April and May 2021. That May, Amerikaner also published a text by “Levi” announcing “The Spartan Project,” an attempt to unify various white nationalist projects. Brosnahan has subsequently tried to launch other racist initiatives, inevitably with himself in the role of the strategist or secret organizer behind the scenes.

    “Levi Savage” on the National Alliance’s “White Biocentrism” forum

    In January 2021, “Levi Savage” introduced himself as “a new National Alliance member” on the organization’s “White Biocentrism” forum. The National Alliance was once the largest neo-Nazi group in North America, although it sharply declined following the 2002 death of its founder and leader; ensuing internal power struggles; and the child porn conviction of Kevin Alfred Strom, who led a breakaway group. The National Alliance’s founder, William Luther Pierce, wrote The Turner Diaries, a race war fantasy which continues to inspire the white supremacist underground. Devin Brosnahan clearly views Pierce as a great leader, seeing as he signed up for the organization Pierce led for decades and until late last year used an image of Pierce as his profile picture on Telegram. As a member of the National Alliance, “Levi Savage” contributed a racist and antisemitic article which was published on one of the Alliance’s websites. However, “Levi” posted for the last time on “White Biocentrism” forum just one month after his introductory post, suggesting that he may have quickly lost interest in the organization. (We cannot rule out Brosnahan staying involved behind the scenes.)

    White Lives Matter Propaganda Efforts

    Our organization first noticed Brosnahan’s “Levi Savage” account in the Telegram messaging channel for “White Lives Matter – Georgia” on February 1, 2022, although he may have joined a few days earlier. WLM – GA soon made “Levi” an administrator for the channel, a role which Devin Brosnahan continues to the present. “White Lives Matter” is a white nationalist project focusing on anonymous propaganda distribution such as placing stickers and banners, but also holds masked flash mob demonstrations in states where it has established a core of activists. The Georgia branch of WLM has never achieved this critical mass, hopefully in part because of our efforts, but members traveled to Tennessee to participate in demonstrations there. Since 2021, WLM – GA has had several administrators for its Telegram channel, most of whom our organization exposed. At the end of 2021, we exposed Dustin Barnes as WLM – GA’s main administrator at the time. Last year we unmasked Hunter Forsyth, at the time a firefighter in Coweta County, as one of Brosnahan’s co-administrators for the Georgia channel. Brosnahan/“Levi Savage” has now been the longest-lasting administrator for WLM – GA, and one of the project’s most energetic participants. Although the Georgia WLM network has been mostly quiet since we exposed Forsyth and appealed for information on “Levi” at the end of last year, Brosnahan has not left the network or his admin role.

    Devin Brosnahan leaves WLM stickers along Evans to Locks Road, metro Augusta, March 2022

    We have already mentioned Brosnahan targeting Camp Helaman outside Augusta with WLM propaganda, as well as his placing a WLM banner at an overpass in Augusta later in February 2022. In March 2022, he left a trail of WLM stickers along a three-mile stretch of the Evans to Locks Road in metro Augusta. This stickering mission was documented in a video shared to the WLM – GA channel on Telegram. In the footage, “Levi”/Brosnahan appeared to be traveling on a OneWheel device. Devin Brosnahan is familiar with the area he targeted—an earlier family home was located off this same stretch of the Evans to Locks Road.

    WLM flash demonstration in Nashville, Tennessee, April 2022

    While Devin Brosnahan was a WLM – GA administrator, members of the Georgia group traveled to participate in two WLM – Tennessee rallies, the first in Nashville during April 2022 and the second in Franklin that June. We cannot definitively identify Brosnahan as one of the masked figures at these events. At minimum, Brosnahan made propaganda around the white nationalist displays and promoted them. Brosnahan made a remixed video “edit” of footage from the April 2022 flash demonstration in Nashville, which he shared in early June to the WLM – GA channel. We have been able to identify videos made by “Levi” through their style and also by analyzing file metadata. Later, we will discuss Brosnahan’s videos for another project, the hardcore antisemitic Goyim Defense League.

    At the same time Brosnahan began as a WLM – GA administrator, he networked with other groups and tried to bring them together under his strategic leadership. A document created by “Levi”/Brosnahan and circulated to contacts on Telegram in early March 2022, “White Unity Project: Winning the White Way,” set out his vision. The two-page document, intended as an introduction to a larger work, set out the project’s goal: “to update the playbook by which Adolf Hitler and his followers found success”. To establish the author’s credibility as a Nazi, one third of the text consisted of an extended quote from Mein Kampf. The document’s argument was banal: that those “performing pro-White activism” and those “building pro-White communities” should unite their efforts. Like his “Spartan Project” of the year prior, Brosnahan’s “White Unity Project” went nowhere. However, the text is an example of his committed neo-Nazism, as well as his attempts to network within the white power scene and to establish himself as some sort of thinker within it.

    Goyim Defense League (GDL) Propaganda Efforts

    Neo-Nazis meet near Savannah, Georgia to distribute Goyim Defense League propaganda, from video edited by Devin Brosnahan, February 2022

    Coinciding with his early WLM – GA activities and the “White Unity Project” pipe dream, Devin Brosnahan distributed propaganda for the rabidly antisemitic Goyim Defense League (GDL). Our first article on “Levi” mentioned that in the GDL’s chat on Telegram, “Levi Savage” shared a video of a group of neo-Nazis placing GDL flyers into weighted bags and throwing them on lawns in eastern/coastal Georgia. Although “Levi”/Brosnahan shared this video to GDL chat in September 2022, file metadata shows that it was created on February 23, 2022, with the events it portrayed occurring some time earlier. We have now discovered that this video was first posted to a small white supremacist Telegram channel, “FL GA Border Waffen” (now renamed), on February 23, 2022. Two brief clips that appeared in the completed video were shared on that channel a couple of days earlier. By examining the completed video’s metadata, we could tell that it was made by the same person behind “Levi’s” videos for WLM. We also identified one of the participants in the GDL flyer distribution footage as “Levi,” based on matching clothing items, height, and build. We believe that Brosnahan traveled to near Savannah and met up with other neo-Nazis from the “Border Waffen” channel; helped prepare and likely distribute the GDL flyers; and then edited the propaganda video for the group.

    Devin Brosnahan throws GDL propaganda in Sandy Springs, July 2022

    Another video shared to the Goyim Defense League’s chat on Telegram shows a first-person view of “Levi” throwing bags of GDL propaganda onto properties in Sandy Springs, metro Atlanta, in July 2022. Just like his March 2022 stickering for White Lives Matter – Georgia, “Levi” appears to use a OneWheel to move through the area, while filming from a helmet-mounted camera. Sandy Springs was almost certainly targeted because of its sizable Jewish population, which Brosnahan was attempting to intimidate with his flyers. The incident was covered by The Atlanta Jewish Times. Sandy Springs was targeted with GDL flyers again in early February this year, but this time the flyer bags were thrown from a white four-door sedan. Because a handful of GDL members are active in our state, we do not claim that Brosnahan was responsible for this latest incident.

    Anti-LGBTQ+ Multi-Group Coalition Activism

    Devin Brosnahan also plunged into anti-gay and anti-trans harassment campaigns in our state last year, operating as WLM – GA but also collaborating with other far-right groups. On October 3, 2022, WLM – GA posted that “anonymous activists” from their network participated in a recent protest of Drag Queen Story Time events in Columbus, Georgia. The Georgia chapter of the Proud Boys and other far-right individuals harassed ColGAY Pride events on September 3 and October 1 last year. The WLM statement was ambiguous about which of these events they participated in, or whether they were active both times. An anti-trans flyer distributed on October 1 in Columbus led directly back to Brosnahan—when one scanned the QR code on the flyer, this led to a “flyer feedback” Signal group operated by “Spartan Levi.” The number on this Signal account ultimately led to us identify Brosnahan.

    Transphobic flyer distributed by Brosnahan’s network in Columbus, Georgia, October 1, 2022

    Finally, the WLM – GA channel claimed that WLM and “like-minded activists protested Savannah PRIDE 2022.” The accompanying video showed two individuals passing out homophobic/transphobic flyers at the Savannah Pride evening celebrations on October 28, 2022. It remains unclear whether Devin Brosnahan was one of the two people who physically passed out the flyers. However, the flyers are in Brosnahan’s typical style, and he edited the video that appeared on WLM – GA’s Telegram channel. The post on this Telegram channel provided Brosnahan’s “Levi Savage” account as who to contact “to get involved” with future activities.

    Work as Emergency Medical Technician

    In February 2022, “Levi”/Brosnahan gave an interview to racist internet broadcaster “John Fashcroft” (recently unmasked as Dylan P. Annex of Tulsa, Oklahoma) about his work in emergency medical services. Brosnahan claimed that his racism is an integral part of how he performs his job day-to-day, stating: “I can’t imagine not being racially aware and then having to deal with some of the situations that I’ve been in.” He also claimed that although he and co-workers received “in-service training about not judging people too quickly […] everybody knows on the street that all that stuff doesn’t work in reality, especially with some of the people we deal with.” In other words: when Brosnahan makes racist judgements as an EMT, he believes that he has the tacit support of his coworkers.

    Devin Brosnahan on “The Eagle’s Nest” fascist broadcast, February 2022

    According to online records, last year Brosnahan was employed by Aiken County Emergency Medical Services in South Carolina. When we contacted Aiken County EMS recently to confirm that Brosnahan still worked for them, they told our caller that they would not provide this information without Brosnahan’s signature on a waiver. Now that we have published extensive documentation on Brosnahan’s neo-Nazi activity, we call on Aiken County EMS to publicly clarify their relationship with him. White supremacists pose a clear danger when working in emergency services, since they will inevitably mistreat and fail to protect members of races and ethnic groups they hate. This is even clearer in Brosnahan’s case, since he is explicit that being “racially aware” plays a part in how he navigates situations at work. We will update this article if Aiken County EMS provides further information on Brosnahan. Since Brosnahan currently also holds an EMT license in Georgia, we hope that community members will also circulate this article around metro Augusta.

    Conclusion

    We can confidently identify “Levi Savage” as Devin Daniel Brosnahan of Augusta. Brosnahan has engaged in extensive neo-Nazi activity while based in Georgia, with groups such as the National Alliance, White Lives Matter, and the Goyim Defense League.

    Brosnahan is a licensed emergency medical technician in South Carolina and Georgia. He believes that racism helps him “deal” with the situations he encounters as an EMT—a horrifying statement since every shift brings him in contact with people experiencing life-threatening crises. According to internet records, Aiken County Emergency Medical Services in South Carolina employed Devin Brosnahan last year. Aiken County EMS must clarify their relationship with Brosnahan, and immediately fire the neo-Nazi if he remains with them. Since Brosnahan is licensed to be an EMT in Georgia as well as South Carolina, and has already targeted Augusta and surrounding areas with racist materials, we also ask that metro Augusta residents share this documentation widely. 

    If you have further information on Brosnahan, or other white nationalists in our state, please get in touch.

  • Violent White Nationalist Leader Works on “Anti-Antifa” Info Project from New Base in Atlanta

    Violent White Nationalist Leader Works on “Anti-Antifa” Info Project from New Base in Atlanta

    Nathan Damigo, a notorious white nationalist leader and co-organizer of 2017’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally, has relocated to Atlanta, where he now attempts to harass those he views as anti-racists, forest defenders, and leftists. Nathan Benjamin Damigo was the first leader for Identity Evropa (IE), a white power organization that eventually morphed into the “American Identity Movement” and disbanded in 2020. As IE’s leader until his resignation in August 2017, Damigo participated in street brawls—including punching a woman in the face—in Berkeley, California and helped organize the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Damigo has now been tied to the property of longtime racist leader, lawyer for Klansmen, and gentrification profiteer Sam Dickson in Buckhead, Atlanta. Damigo is currently operating with the “William McKinley Institute” (WMI), an anti-anti-fascist project that defines itself as “at odds with the Jewish values that dominate our civilization today, infecting every institution with perversion, degeneracy, confusion and chaos”.

    Berkeley, California, April 2017.
    Nathan Benjamin Damigo

    WMI recently circulated photographs of Saturday’s protest in Atlanta over the death of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, who was shot and killed by the Georgia State Patrol during a multi-agency raid on the Weelaunee Forest / “Stop Cop City” protest site on Wednesday, January 18th. Some politically targeted property destruction occurred during the Saturday protest responding to the murder, and a series of violent arrests by police then followed. As part of a broader right-wing campaign to identify and harass those they claim are part of the movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest, WMI published video and still photographs from the Saturday protest after sending someone to spy on the event. These images were then picked up by the “Antifa Watch” doxing blog, and eventually circulated by far-right propagandist Andy Ngo. While Ngo promoted WMI to his mass audience, he did not note its white nationalist and virulently antisemitic nature.

    We have now identified white power leader Nathan Damigo as a key “William McKinley Institute” participant, who is currently based in Atlanta.

    Nathan Damigo, born in Maine in 1986 but raised in California, has an extensive history of white supremacist activism. In November of 2007 after serving in the Marines, Damigo pulled a loaded gun on a stranger because he “look[ed] Iraqi” and robbed the man of $43. While serving a prison sentence, Damigo grew more familiar with white supremacist ideology. On his release in 2014, he joined the youth wing of the America Freedom Party, the National Youth Front. This group would evolve into Identity Evropa in 2016.

    Nathan Damigo at “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 2017.

    Identity Evropa was especially active on college campuses, where they campaigned against perceived “anti-white” bias. In his time organizing with this group, Damigo was a close associate of Richard Spencer and moved in broader “Alt-Right” circles. On April 15, 2017, Damigo scuffled in the “Battle of Berkeley”, where he notably sucker-punched a diminutive woman who was a part of the antifascist protest. Damigo helped lead August 2017’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Identity Evropa had a large contingent. Not long after the deadly rally, Damigo left his leadership position with IE and claimed to be re-focusing on other parts of his life. He was later one of the defendants ordered to pay significant damages in the Sines v. Kessler civil suit over Unite the Right violence. 

    A brief look at the WMI website – which claims to document “anti-White terrorism and extremism” – shows that it is particularly focused on Atlanta, even including a blog post documenting leftist, anarchist, and anti-fascist stickers found around the city. On August 5, 2022, the WMI website published an incident report from the Georgia State University (GSU) police department. The report concerned an action at GSU’s downtown campus the month before, which WMI linked to the movement to defend the Weelaunee forest and to stop the “Cop City” development. Since the police report was clearly accessed through a public records request, we obtained that request. As a result, we can now confirm that Damigo has been living in Atlanta and is active as a white nationalist in our city.

    Open records request by Nathan Damigo to Georgia State University. (Unredacted file here.)

    As shown in the attached evidence, Damigo made the open records request for the GSU incident report and provided an address on Ridgeland Way in Buckhead, Atlanta on the paperwork. We have previously written about this address, which is owned by longtime racist leader Samuel Glasgow Dickson and serves as a hub of sorts for white nationalists. 

    Nathan Damigo’s presence in Atlanta is further corroborated by him speaking at the “Fall Retreat” held in metro Atlanta by Counter-Currents Publishing, a white nationalist propaganda project. That event was held at an undisclosed location from October 21-23, 2022. Counter-Currents subsequently released footage of Damigo’s speech.

    Nathan Damigo speaks at racist “Fall Retreat” in metro Atlanta, October 2022

    While our documentation does not establish that Damigo is the only participant in the William McKinley Institute, he appears to be a trusted one. The anti-anti-fascist, anti-“anti-White” project takes its name from a US President who was assassinated by an anarchist in 1901. Its obscure blog was launched in 2019, with a Telegram channel and proper website appearing last year. WMI claims to work directly with the “Antifa Watch” website. We have already noted WMI’s profound antisemitism, and that the project is premised on white nationalist narratives that the US is being overrun by an “anti-White” wave. Although far-right propagandist Andy Ngo has shared WMI content after it was laundered by “Antifa Watch,” WMI have pointed to Ngo as an example of “degenerate liberals”. This may seem strange, but follows white supremacist logic: Ngo’s politics are fascist, but his status as a gay Asian male means that his white supremacist allies will never truly accept him, no matter his actions for the cause. 

    Far-right propagandist Andy Ngo boosts WMI and their materials to his audience

    The purpose of WMI is to identify and then harass those they perceive as anti-fascists from around the country. The “Antifa Watch” project works with WMI to further promote its materials and to build broader harassment campaigns against those targeted. Damigo, whose Identity Evropa organization was undermined by diverse anti-fascist organizing, clearly has reason to detest “antifa” and aligned movements. It is very likely that Damigo also had a hand in the most recent photographs of Atlanta protesters published on the WMI site. If anyone has footage of Damigo or others who could have been the WMI photographer/videographer at the January 21st protest, please reach out to us. While some US protests have seen far-right agitators dressing in “black bloc” in order to infiltrate protests and gather information, it appears that WMI’s watcher simply took long-range photographs from a higher vantage point and then tailed the protest from a slight distance while recording video.

    We are sharing this information to warn our community and the movement to defend the Weelaunee forest about Nathan Damigo and the “William McKinley Institute”. If you have more information about Damigo, his associates in our region, or the WMI, please contact us. If you are an activist in Atlanta, please be on the lookout for Damigo or for sketchy individuals who stand out from regular journalists, who are specifically taking pictures of faces at protests. We hope that this publication will also draw attention to Sam Dickson, his house on Ridgeland Way, and his mentoring and material support of young white supremacists. Dickson’s activities have long been tacitly condoned by the Atlanta power structure, and he maintains a friendly network of real estate connections as well as legal standing with the Georgia Bar.

  • Hunter Wyatt Lamm: Longtime Neo-Nazi Attempts to Build Football Career, Infiltrate Politics

    Hunter Wyatt Lamm: Longtime Neo-Nazi Attempts to Build Football Career, Infiltrate Politics

    Update, late November 2022: Online footage shows Hunter Lamm training with the Peach State Cats, revealing that the team’s internal investigation has concluded and favored Lamm. The team never reached out to our group with questions or for further documentation. We strongly condemn the team’s reckless decision.

    Update, late September 2022: According to a post on the Peach State Cats’ Facebook page, Hunter Lamm has been removed from the team while it pursues an internal investigation.

    Anti-racist researcher Nick Martin has uncovered that Eugene Yu’s campaign paid Lamm at least $2,500 for work this year.

    Introduction

    Hunter Wyatt Lamm (born 1996) of Cumming, Georgia is a longtime neo-Nazi who was active with the American Nazi Party until at least late 2021. This year, Lamm is attempting to build a future for himself in professional sports. Lamm plays football for the Peach State Cats, a team within the semi-professional Elite Indoor Football league. On September 24, the Peach State Cats will play an exhibition game against the Western Maryland Warriors at the Atlanta Silverbacks Suwanee Indoor field. We are publishing documentation on Lamm because this game is a scouting opportunity for him. We believe that Lamm should not be allowed an opportunity to make money in sports, and that the Peach State Cats should kick the racist out rather than giving him opportunities to advance. We are also circulating information on Lamm in case he tries to build influence as a Republican political activist, since Lamm was active this year in a Republican campaign in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.

    Hunter Wyatt Lamm

    Lamm and Neo-Nazism

    We first wrote about Lamm in 2018, when we noted that he was one of the racists listed as “Going” on the Facebook event page for a white power rally, “Rock Stone Mountain II,” that was scheduled for February 2019. Due to poor organizing by white supremacists, Stone Mountain Park denying a permit for the event, and anti-racist community mobilization, that white power rally did not take place as announced.

    In our 2018 discussion of Lamm, we pointed out that he was an avowed “National Socialist” who attempted one-man racist demonstrations in Forsyth County and promoted something called the “National Socialist American Workers Party.” This “Party” appears to have mainly been Lamm himself.

    Leaked 2017 messages from a communications channel operated by Vanguard America also included posts by Hunter Lamm. Vanguard America was a fascist organization best known for being the group Heather Heyer’s murderer marched with at “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia, before his deadly vehicular attack later that day.

    Hunter Lamm’s YouTube account previously included a reference to the American Nazi Party (ANP) and to the “Fourteen Words,” a white supremacist slogan.

    Our previous discussion of Lamm highlighted that he had been a US Marine, although Lamm’s military career ended prematurely in 2017 – possibly because of his open neo-Nazi organizing.

    In 2019, Hunter Lamm began loudly promoting the “American Nazi Party” (ANP), a tiny organization founded by Rocky Suhayda as an attempted relaunch of George Lincoln Rockwell’s original ANP. On a blog created by Lamm in 2019, he claimed to have a much longer history within the ANP:

    “I want to take action for the American Nazi Party […] I will do whatever I can to ensure victory and success. […] I’m 22 years old, and have been apart [sic] of the party since 13.”

    ANP’s website currently hosts thirteen podcast episodes by Hunter Lamm, recorded in 2020 and 2021. Lamm’s most recent episode was recorded less than a year ago, in October 2021.

    News story on American Nazi Party propaganda in Forsyth County, January 2021

    In January 2021, American Nazi Party propaganda appeared in mailboxes in Cumming, Georgia, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Lamm lives in Cumming and all evidence points to him distributing these flyers. On a podcast episode, Lamm boasted of placing other ANP materials: specifically, printing out ANP flyers at the library and leaving them in books about the Holocaust. His comments about driving long distances to meet other ANP members suggest that Lamm was the only active ANP member in his immediate area.

    Ironically, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) publicly appealed for information about the neo-Nazi propaganda left in Cumming mailboxes. At the time, Hydie Panthea Lamm (born 1970) worked as a Sergeant with FCSO and presumably knew of her son’s neo-Nazi activities, since they lived under the same roof. Hydie Lamm’s law enforcement career ended later in 2021, although this had nothing to do with her covering for her son’s neo-Nazi harassment.

    2022: Football and Republican Politics

    This year, Lamm began playing with the Peach State Cats, a team within the semi-professional Elite Indoor Football league. Lamm aspires to getting scouted and building a lucrative pro career. The Peach State Cats are a majority Black team. Presently, Lamm’s social media bears no trace of the hardcore neo-Nazism which he had been espousing just last year.

    Eugene Yu and Hunter Lamm earlier this year

    Also this year, Lamm assisted Eugene Yu’s run in 6th Congressional District. Yu – who moved to Georgia from South Korea while in high school – is a businessman, veteran, and perennial candidate in Republican primaries. In this year’s 6th Congressional District primary, Yu came in fifth with 6.5% of the vote. Lamm wrote on Facebook that he was “apart of” (sic) Yu’s campaign, and frequently promoted Yu during the race. Eugene Yu may not have been fully aware of Lamm’s history as a white supremacist, since in 2020 during an earlier political campaign, Yu canceled an in-person appearance after learning that his hosts were a group with extensive Klan and neo-Nazi ties.

    Reformed? 

    Lamm’s recent activity – playing on a majority Black football team and helping an Asian-American’s political efforts – may suggest that he has changed his views and abandoned the white supremacist movement. Writing of his time with the Yu campaign, Lamm mentioned in passing that “There is a lot I regret in life,” which could suggest that Lamm regretted his time as a neo-Nazi. However, we do not believe that Lamm has reformed.

    Our group has documented neo-Nazi activity by Lamm from 2017 onward, yet by Lamm’s own account he was an active neo-Nazi for years before this, starting at the age of thirteen. Behaviors and patterns of thought learned over years of white supremacist involvement simply do not reverse themselves overnight. Changing requires recognizing the harm that one has caused, and peer support is often needed so that one does not backslide into harmful and racist behavior. Less than a year ago, Lamm was promoting the American Nazi Party. Since that time, Lamm has made no direct apology or any effort to set things right, for example by taking responsibility for ANP flyers placed around Cumming or discussing how his mother kept quiet on his behalf while she worked in law enforcement. 

    Lamm never contacted our organization about leaving the racist movement, as we encourage people in our state to do. There is no evidence that Lamm tried to reach out to any reputable group that provides support for those leaving the racist movement.

    January 24, 2022 messages
    March 21, 2022 messages

    Finally, our organization has received screen-captured Facebook messages seemingly sent by Lamm earlier this year. In one message, Lamm writes of staying quiet about his actual views so that he can move ahead with his life goals and eventually be able to “secretly” deliver “massive funding” to the ANP. In another message a few months later, Lamm refers to Black people as “n[****]rs” who should be hung. Lamm was part of the Peach State Cats, a majority Black team, at the time of this message.

    Given the above, Lamm’s work for the Yu campaign is most likely a tactical move, not an indication that he has rejected his earlier neo-Nazi beliefs. Lamm is attempting to enter Republican political circles and gradually build influence, but his Hitlerite end-goals have not necessarily changed. 

    Conclusion and Call to Action

    Atlanta Antifascists have always encouraged those in the white power movement to leave and start to turn their lives around. Hunter Wyatt Lamm, who less than a year ago recorded propaganda for the American Nazi Party, never left the racist movement. Rather, he has adopted a stealth mode while trying to build a career in sports in order to fund his neo-Nazi goals. Lamm has also dabbled in Georgia Republican politics in a likely attempt to build influence for the same goals.

    Football reel for Hunter Wyatt Lamm

    Contrary to popular misconceptions, many neo-Nazis are capable of working closely with the minorities they hate. In their Nazi safe spaces, they often brag about their surface politeness and their ability to pass for a non-racist. However, they also constantly pass each other derogatory information about the people they work with, mock them behind their backs, and fantasize about how to handle them after a race war. It is very likely that Lamm’s attitude toward his coaches and teammates follows this model, and we believe that nobody should have to play on a team with a committed neo-Nazi. Please contact the Peach State Cats and the Elite Indoor Football league, expressing concern about Hunter Lamm’s involvement. Demand that they drop the Nazi player.

    Peach State Cats:

    [email protected]
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jbmorelandscouting
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Cats_ig_tv

    Elite Indoor Football:

    https://www.eiffootball.com/contact.html

    We also ask that readers distribute this information to friends in Forsyth County and particularly in Cumming, so that neighbors can be aware of their local neo-Nazi.

    If you have further information on Hunter Lamm or other white supremacists in our region, please get in touch.

  • Gallery of the Georgia Proud Boys Failed Harassment Convoy Against Pro-Choice Protesters in Downtown Atlanta

    Gallery of the Georgia Proud Boys Failed Harassment Convoy Against Pro-Choice Protesters in Downtown Atlanta

    Around 5PM on Saturday June 25th, a group of almost twenty Proud Boys came into downtown Atlanta, looking to harass pro-choice protesters. We covered the excursion on a Twitter thread here, helping amplify many sources who were on the ground. Most of the Proud Boys wore plates and custom branded insignia, and their convoy consisted of three pickup trucks plus a repurposed armored truck. Despite their obvious intent to intimidate Atlantans with this show of force, the Proud Boy convoy met with immediate concerted resistance and was prevented from harassing protesters by local armed community defense.

    The Proud Boys attempted to conceal their identities by wearing gaiter masks and obscuring their plates. This tactic has worked well for them in the past, since they typically have friendly relations with the police. However, it did not entirely succeed this time, and they received traffic citations for attempting to obscure their plates.

    The neo-fascist Proud Boys have had little to no public presence in metro Atlanta for several years. Their organization statewide in Georgia focused on social events and quiet networking. Many recruits would pass through the Proud Boys only temporarily, with some members eventually moving toward more openly white supremacist and neo-Nazi politics. However, judging by the ridiculous insignia on their vanity truck, the Georgia chapter has been reconstituted as of 2021. We are working on further identification and will have more to publish soon. In the meantime, we are posting this gallery of media for the public to examine. If you have any tips, contact us. Email is the most secure method, and as always, we guard the confidentiality and anonymity of our sources.

    Images of Proud Boys dressed in yellow and black with custom insignia at the Capitol in Atlanta June 25 2022
    Video of departing convoy
    Police Scanner audio discussing traffic citations
    Edited to add another submitted photoset
  • Cartersville, Georgia: Meet Local Neo-Nazi Activist Michael David Weaver

    Cartersville, Georgia: Meet Local Neo-Nazi Activist Michael David Weaver

    Michael David Weaver (also known as Michael David Carothers) is a violent neo-Nazi who has been active since he was a teenager. Currently, he lives in Cartersville and is engaging in a campaign to spread hate in Georgia. Since late last year, Weaver has distributed copious amounts of antisemitic propaganda, mainly for the antisemitic Goyim Defense League but also for other white supremacist groups. Weaver also holds one-man demonstrations with antisemitic signs outside the Bartow County Courthouse. Weaver has a long history of ideologically driven harassment and violence, including an assault on a Black man in Columbus, Georgia for which Weaver served a one-year sentence. Continue reading for more info on Weaver and actions which community members can take.

    Michael David Weaver (AKA Michael Carothers)

    According to a propaganda article about Weaver/Carothers, Weaver joined the National Alliance “upon turning 18.” Even before then, he distributed racist materials at his high school. At one point, the National Alliance was the largest neo-Nazi organization in North America. It was founded by William Luther Pierce, author of the notorious neo-Nazi genocide fantasy The Turner Diaries. Weaver claims to have met Pierce at a National Alliance meeting in Dahlonega, Georgia before Pierce’s death in 2002.

    Michael Weaver/Carothers in 2008 National Alliance newsletter.

    Weaver was not just a regular member of the National Alliance but set himself apart to the point that the organization named him as its “Activist of the Year” in 2008. (The National Alliance went into steep decline after Pierce’s 2002 death.) Weaver distributed National Alliance literature both on his own and along with his father, David Ray Carothers, who is also a committed neo-Nazi.

    In a 2003 interview, Michael Carothers (Weaver) praised the World Church of the Creator’s leader, who was later convicted for soliciting the murder of a judge.

    Weaver/Carothers was also a member of the white power “World Church of the Creator” (WCOTC) – now known as “Creativity” – which calls for a “racial holy war.” WCOTC newsletters listed Weaver/Carothers as a contact starting from at least the year 2000. In early 2003, Weaver gave an interview as a WCOTC activist, in the wake of WCOTC’s leader being charged with soliciting the murder of a judge.

    Weaver at court hearing

    In December 2010 in Columbus, Georgia, Weaver assaulted a Black man, a stranger, pulling up next to him as he was walking and pepper-spraying him. Weaver pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and received a sentence of one year in jail, nine years’ probation, and banishment from the city of Columbus until the end of his probation.

    Upon his release, Weaver relocated to Cartersville and assumed a comparatively lower profile. Soon enough, however, he reared his ugly head again, posting regularly on his “White Information Network” blog which he had initially established in 2010 before his jail sentence (Google/Blogspot removed the site in 2021.) Weaver attended the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 and was in the planning chat for “Unite the Right 2” the following year.

    Weaver (black shirt on right) after violence at the Unite the Right torch march, August 11, 2017. Also pictured walking through crowd with Weaver: white nationalists Renee and Brad Griffin.

    In 2018, Weaver called for supporters to join a hate rally led by the National Socialist Movement although he did not personally attend. Weaver also became involved with the “Rock Stone Mountain II” white power rally that was set to take place in early 2019. The rally collapsed after Stone Mountain Park denied organizers their application for a permit, and anti-racists promised to challenge any unpermitted rally.

    Weaver (on left) poses with other neo-Nazis and Klansmen including Chester Doles (third from left) after the first meeting of “American Patriots USA,” December 2019.

    Weaver was highly active in north Georgia’s “American Patriots USA” (APUSA) from its founding in late 2019 until mid-2020 when he left over disagreements. Neo-Nazi and former Klan leader Chester Doles created APUSA, in the hope that a group with patriotic branding could build alliances with the broader far-right. Doles and Carothers know each other from their days in the National Alliance, where Doles had been a unit leader.

    White nationalist Telegram channel with close ties to Michael Weaver claims that antisemitic flyers in metro Atlanta were left by him. Using an account under a known alias, Weaver also shared the Atlanta Jewish Times story about his flyers to the white supremacist Stormfront forum.

    Coinciding with the end of his probation, Weaver has restarted intense flyering activity. He typically targets Cartersville and the surrounding area, but also hits metro Atlanta. On his Telegram channel, Weaver brags of his neo-Nazi propaganda distribution campaigns – sometimes logging more than one incident a day. Weaver usually distributes flyers from the extremely antisemitic Goyim Defense League. He also circulates materials from the racist/fascist Patriot Front – he is a sympathizer, not a member – as well as the National Alliance, to which he once belonged.

    Michael Weaver placing Goyim Defense League flyers on vehicles, Cartersville, April 2022.

    On 19 April, 2022 when placing antisemitic materials on parked cars by the Bartow County Courthouse, Weaver began menacing and then followed an individual who had taken offense to the flyers and had started to remove them from cars. A police officer who arrived on the scene declined to charge Weaver regarding this conflict but cited him for a misdemeanor city ordinance violation regarding the flyers. The racist Conservative Action Report paper reports that Weaver is fighting this charge with help from Atlanta attorney Justin Showalter.

    David Ray Carothers throws antisemitic flyers on lawns in Georgia.

    Two videos recently shared online by Weaver show his father, David Ray Carothers, throwing Goyim Defense League flyers onto lawns from a moving car. Weaver seemingly drove and took the footage. One of these videos mentions targeting Euharlee, which is a short drive from Cartersville. If Weaver’s constant brags on Telegram are to be believed, he has hit many other north Georgia communities. Throwing weighted bags containing flyers onto lawns is a distribution method associated with the Ku Klux Klan, although other white supremacists also use it to spread propaganda.

    Michael Weaver (on right) with neo-Nazi and former Klan leader David Duke.

    Michael David Weaver is a violent neo-Nazi. He has a history of attempting to intimidate anyone he perceives as an enemy, or who stands in the way of his racist and antisemitic “activism.” To disrupt his efforts, you can:

    1.      Send us information on Weaver’s landlord. Michael David Weaver lives in an apartment on Fite Street, in a building owned by Brill Brothers, LLC. The person listed as this company’s agent on Georgia Secretary of State filings, states that he has not actually been involved with the company for years. We are asking anyone with current information for Brill Brothers, LLC to contact us. Property managers need to know that by housing a violent white supremacist, they endanger other residents and community members.

    2.      Report Michael Weaver’s PayPal, @mweaver1521. Weaver uses this account to solicit funds for his antisemitic and white supremacist flyering campaigns.

    3.      Share any info you may have on Weaver’s training/nutrition business, or other potential sources of income. You can contact our organization by email at: afainatl [at] riseup [dot] net. More contact info is available on our “About” page.

    Community alert on Michael Weaver. For a .pdf you can print and distribute, click here.
  • Anti-Vaccine Conference in Metro Atlanta Promotes Far-right and Antisemitic Poison

    Anti-Vaccine Conference in Metro Atlanta Promotes Far-right and Antisemitic Poison

    Update 6/3/2022: The far-right anti-vaccine conference is now taking place at the DoubleTree in Roswell, Georgia. Please contact the hotel directly as well as the company that manages it, Hospitality Ventures Management Group, with your concerns.

    Update 6/2/2022: Unity North Atlanta has canceled the reservation for Next Steps conference.

    Introduction

    On Friday and Saturday, June 3-4, “Next Steps,” a major anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial conference, is scheduled to take place at Unity North Atlanta in Marietta, Georgia. QAnon believer Tiendra “Tia” Severino (née Demian) of Tucker, Georgia organized the conference with support from Timothy John Ray’s “UI Media” network. Tim Ray and at least two other speakers are vocal antisemites. One of these speakers has proclaimed that the “God of the Jews is Satan himself.”

    Tiendra Severino of Tucker, Georgia

    “UI Media” and the “Next Steps” conference are thoroughly intertwined. The conference will feature a “UI Media Awards” ceremony presented by Tia Severino and Tim Ray. UI Media is the exclusive source for footage of the conference and markets “digital replay[s]” of conference workshops on its website. Conference organizer Tia Severino has hosted her show on UI Media for the past two years. The conference’s “VIP Party” on Saturday night will be held in Canton, Georgia, which happens to be where Tim Ray owns a home.

    Timothy John Ray of Canton, Georgia

    The “Next Steps” conference features big names from anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial circles, such as Dr. Christiane Northrup, who played a key role in amplifying coronavirus disinformation in the pandemic’s first year, and COVID/snake venom conspiracy theorist Dr. Bryan Ardis. The conference also reflects the deep antisemitism of Tim Ray and his “UI Media” project. A couple scheduled to speak at the conference’s “VIP Dinner” on Friday argues that a Jewish conspiracy has plotted for centuries to rule the world, currently controls the US government, and aims to enslave all non-Jewish people. Tim Ray finds this theory credible enough to promote the couple and other hardcore antisemites on his UI Media site. In a speech to an anti-mask/anti-vaccine rally in Atlanta last year, Tim Ray made thinly coded references to conspiracy theories of Jewish power, blaming “international Sabbatian cabalists” for the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Promotional image for Next Steps conference

    As well as spreading medical falsehoods and stirring up hatred against Jewish people, the Next Steps conference has ties to other far-Right organizers in Georgia and nationally. We document these ties throughout this piece. Since the conference aims to not only undermine public health measures but to normalize far-right and antisemitic organizing, we believe it deserves a response. We include action items at the end of this article.

    “VIP dinner” promotional image

    Steven and Jana Ben-Nun

    Steven and Jana Ben-Nun of Israeli News Live are scheduled to speak at the Friday night “VIP Dinner” for the Next Steps Conference. The couple has earlier histories in Messianic Jewish circles. In recent years, they have embraced an unambiguously antisemitic worldview. Before a 2012 name change, Steven Ben-Nun was known as Stephen Troy Cummings. He has also used the name “Steven DeNoon” in early writings. Jana Ben-Nun is listed as Jana Sutoova in Florida business filings for their DeNoon Institute of Biblical Research. The couple presently lives in Sunbright, Tennessee.

    Steven and Jana Ben-Nun

    In a May 2021 interview with Tim Ray on the UI Media website, Steven Ben-Nun claimed that a Jewish conspiracy spanning centuries has “been steering everything from the background” and is headed toward establishing a “New World Order.” He added that this conspiracy operates on a “global scale” and impacts “every aspect of government and social life.” “All the wars that we see happening in the world” are a result of Jewish infiltration and manipulation, according to Ben-Nun. In the second half of the interview, Steven Ben-Nun was joined by his wife Jana, and the two discussed the alleged conspiracy’s plans to kill off much of the world’s population, to make non-Jewish people into the slaves of Jews, and to behead Christians and others who do not submit. According to Jana Ben-Nun, the conspiracy aims for a world where “One Jew will have 2,500 gentiles as slaves”. Jana Ben-Nun also asserted that the world-controlling Jewish conspiracy is behind child trafficking and organ trafficking and that the “God of the Jews is Satan himself.” Following this interview, program host Tim Ray invited Steven Ben-Nun back on UI Media another three times.

    May 2021 UI Media appearance

    The interview we summarized is typical Ben-Nun fare. In a 2020 interview on Rick Wiles’ TruNews – another antisemitic website – Jana Ben-Nun declared that the “transgender agenda today” has “its origin in Zionism” and is part of the massive Jewish plot. A November 2021 article by Jana Ben-Nun on Israeli News Live states: “Israel was created by the Rothchild [sic] dynasty […] These are the same people that were responsible for the Holocaust.” Jana Ben-Nun uses a rhetorical technique called synecdoche, in which a part of something is used to stand for the whole: in this case, the Rothschild family is used to represent a broader Jewish conspiracy. Blaming an imagined Jewish conspiracy for the Nazi genocide against Europe’s Jewish population is peak antisemitism.

    The fact that Steven and Jana Ben-Nun have achieved niche celebrity status is symptomatic of the antisemitism which already exists within anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial spaces. However, by giving Jew-hating propagandists a prestigious spot at the Next Steps “VIP dinner,” organizers are attempting to place antisemitism even closer to the center of anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial movements.

    Two Other “VIP Dinner” Speakers

    Many of the conference speakers are well-known figures within anti-vaccination circles. They can roughly be divided between “old school” anti-vaxxers who were active before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and those who became active with the pandemic. It would be tedious to discuss these characters individually, but researchers can check their names on an archived version of the event’s website. However, we wish to highlight two other speakers scheduled for the Next Steps “VIP dinner,” since these figures highlight the broader far-Right circles and agenda which animate the gathering.

    Benjamin Swann

    Benjamin Swann is the keynote speaker for the “Next Steps” dinner. Swann regularly appeared on RT America, a channel sponsored by the Russian state, between 2013 – 2015. In June 2015, he landed a job at CBS 46 in Atlanta. While at the station, Swann’s “Reality Check” reports “often veered into alt-right conspiracy theories” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Swann devoted a six-minute news section to Pizzagate in 2017, with Swann promoting the conspiracy theory in a “just asking questions” manner. Pizzagate, which claimed that liberal elites participated in a child abuse ring run from the basement of a Washington DC pizzeria, was later elaborated on by the QAnon movement. 

    The station suspended Swann following his Pizzagate broadcast and fired him in January 2018, after Swann tried to relaunch his “Reality Check” series without his employer’s consent. Swann then returned to RT America. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swann has been a prolific source of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and falsehoods. In 2020, he established ISE Media – a video streaming and social networking site – which was later rebranded as SovRen. The site has been adopted by far-right propagandist Alex Jones of InfoWars among others.

    Kandiss Taylor

    Kandiss S. Taylor, who was a fringe candidate for governor in Georgia, is also scheduled to speak at the “VIP dinner.” Taylor turned conspiracy theories into campaign issues, claiming that she would take on the “Global Luciferian Regime [that] has seeped its way into our Government.” While Taylor has not publicly endorsed QAnon, such rhetoric resonates within QAnon circles. Campaigning on the slogan of “Jesus Guns Babies,” Taylor rejected separation of church and state and promoted Christian nationalism. Taylor also claimed that Native Americans who faced massacres and whose land was stolen, made a “sacrifice” so that settlers could worship Jesus freely. Taylor promotes conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell a key supporter of her campaign. After coming in third for the Republican gubernatorial nomination with 3.4% of the vote, Taylor has predictably refused to concede, with Lindell promising a “big investigation” and Taylor tweeting: “I don’t stand still while communism takes over control.”

    Timothy Ray, UI Media, Antisemitism, and the Far-right

    We earlier discussed Timothy John Ray’s “UI Media” being centrally involved in conference organizing and promotion. Next Steps even includes a “UI Media Awards” as part of its programming. “UI Media” is an outgrowth of Tim Ray’s United Intentions Foundation, Inc., registered as a Georgia business in 2009 and approved by the IRS as a tax-exempt nonprofit in 2010. According to a recent IRS return, United Intentions’ mission is to “awaken all people to the power of their intentions.” In 2015, United Intentions launched the UI Radio Network – now UI Media Network – with broadcasts focusing on self-help and a “conscious” lifestyle, but occasionally veering into paranormal topics and conspiracy theories. With the 2020 debut of Tim Ray’s “Frequency Wars” show, UI Media Network moved to unambiguous far-Right politics and antisemitism, while maintaining its lifestyle programming to drawn people in.

    Tim Ray broadcast with David Icke (right)

    In addition to promoting Steven and Jana Ben-Nun, Tim Ray has hosted other antisemites on UI Media. Ray has done two broadcasts with David Icke, a conspiracy theorist and New Age personality who cites The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and defends Holocaust deniers in his writing. Icke believes that “Rothschild” plotters were behind Hitler’s rise to power. He has subsequently claimed that “Rothschild” conspirators are behind everything from staging the September 11, 2001 attacks to manufacturing the coronavirus pandemic, which Icke claims is not an actual pandemic. 

    Tim Ray also hosted New Ager and conspiracy theorist Sacha Stone for three episodes on UI Media’s “Frequency Wars.” According to the UK monitoring organization Hopes Not Hate, Stone deploys “coded antisemitic language very similar to that of David Icke.” In October 2021, Tim Ray hosted a UI Media appearance for Harry Vox. Vox has claimed that “Jewish Finance Capital [aims] to destroy & enslave us” and that COVID-10 vaccines are a Jewish plot to sicken and kill white women.

    Tim Ray, Robert David Steele, and Sacha Stone, May 2021

    Ray’s work with antisemites does not stop there. On May 20, 2021, Ray hosted Robert David Steele along with Sacha Stone for the first date of Steele’s “Arise USA” speaking tour. The event took place in the parking lot in front of the United Intentions Foundation office in Roswell, Georgia. A detailed profile on Steele by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights describes him as an “prolific purveyor of antisemitism who spews conspiracy theories about ‘satanic Zionists’ engaged in a global plot against white people [and who] promotes Holocaust denial”. Steele would die later in 2021 from COVID-19, which until the end he refused to accept as real.

    Beyond these antisemites, UI Media also promotes other far-right movements and figures. On presidential election day, November 3, 2020, UI hosted Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, for the first time. Over the next year, Rhodes made further appearances on the network. Rhodes and other Oath Keepers are presently facing federal “seditious conspiracy” charges for their roles in the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol.

    Alex Newman appearance on UI Media

    The John Birch Society (JBS) is another source of guests for UI Media. Alex Newman, a senior editor at JBS’s The New American magazine, has appeared on UI Media a dozen times. For two of those appearances, Newman was joined by G. Edward Griffin, a JBS life member who is best known for writing the anti-Federal Reserve The Creature from Jekyll Island. JBS, founded in 1958 and whose membership peaked in the mid-1960s, is an anti-communist and far-right group that believes a shadowy group of “insiders” manipulate world politics and economy. JBS claims that its theories have no antisemitic aspect or implication, yet it is easy to see how this worldview could merge with explicit antisemitic beliefs. In another example of UI Media promoting JBS figures, on her “The People’s Truth” show Tia Severino interviewed JBS member Kim Fletter of Cleveland, Georgia on the topic of “The U.N. and the N.W.O. [‘New World Order’]”.

    Incidentally, frequent UI Media guest and The New American senior editor Alex Newman is on the advisory board for Truth in Education, a Georgia group with an anti-trans, anti-“obscenity,” and anti-“critical race theory” agenda. Truth in Education is listed among Next Steps’ “Silver Sponsors” and is one of the Georgia organizations presenting at the conference’s “Community Building” workshop. 

    Tiendra “Tia” Severino

    Next Steps conference organizer Tiendra Severino (née Demian) has a complicated and problematic history as a parent and activist-parent. When police arrested her on other charges in 2003, they alleged that she had neglected her daughter. In the name of protecting children, Severino began her anti-vaccination activism in 2016 when she arranged Atlanta screenings for “Vaxxed”, a documentary film promoting the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism spectrum disorder (Severino has a son with autism spectrum disorder, which she blames on vaccination). Severino subsequently helped with a sequel documentary, “Vaxxed II”. The name of Severino’s UI Media show, “The People’s Truth,” is taken from the subtitle for this sequel. 

    The producer of “Vaxxed,” Del Bigtree, is scheduled to speak at Next Steps conference while the director of “Vaxxed II,” Brian Burrowes, will talk during the conference’s Friday night “VIP dinner.”

    Tia Severino interviews Jordan Sather
    Tia Severino interviews Dustin Krieger (“Dustin Nemos”)

    By 2018, Severino was drawing close to QAnon, a movement based on conspiracy theories of a child-murdering Satanic elite. QAnon viewed Trump as a hero who, along with unnamed military generals, would vanquish this vast conspiracy. On the Facebook page of “Peeps TV” – a media channel connected with production for “Vaxxed II” – Severino interviewed two major QAnon promoters, Jordan Sather and Dustin Krieger (“Dustin Nemos”), in November 2018. During 2020, Severino publicly displayed her QAnon sympathies in social media posts. With Trump’s electoral defeat, QAnon has transformed and camouflaged itself, with some participants moving on to other circles and issues, and others increasingly upfront about their antisemitism. It is unclear whether Severino continues believing in the complete QAnon package. However, she endorsed the view that Satanic elites sacrifice children during a September 2021 discussion about “Secret Societies” on UI Media. In December 2021, she interviewed QAnon influencer Dustin Krieger again, this time for UI Media. 

    Tia Severino, 2020

    Conclusion

    The Next Steps conference is attracting high-profile anti-vaccine propagandists and is endorsed by major anti-vaccine organizations such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Children’s Health Defense. By circulating debunked claims and suggesting a medical conspiracy at work, anti-vaccine organizers work against public health measures that save lives. This is dangerous enough on its own. However, our documentation shows that the anti-vaccination and COVID-19 denial scenes serve as a bridge to even more extravagant conspiracy theories and to far-right organizing.

    The Next Steps conference is a collaboration between main organizer Tia Severino and Tim Ray’s “UI Media.” Severino believes that child-sacrificing Satanists operate behind the scenes of world events. Tim Ray believes that “international Sabbatian cabalists” are behind the COVID-19 pandemic, which Ray also believes is fake. UI Media is centrally involved with the Next Steps conference, which includes “UI Media Awards” hosted by Ray and Severino as part of its programming. UI Media will also profit from selling recordings of the event. The media project combines “conscious” lifestyle content with hatred of Jewish people and support for far-right organizing.

    Antisemitism is directly promoted at the conference, since the event advertises Steven and Jana Ben-Nun as speakers during its Friday night “VIP Dinner.” The Ben-Nuns believe that a Jewish conspiracy aims to enslave humanity and threatens to behead anyone who would resist. UI Media endorses and promotes this antisemitic conspiracy theory.

    Just weeks ago, a white supremacist gunman murdered ten Black people and injured others in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. Antisemitism was a core element of the murderer’s manifesto and helped animate and intensify his anti-Black racism. To explain this dynamic further, it is important to understand that white supremacists typically hold two contradictory beliefs about race: that white people are naturally superior, and that white people are naturally victimized. White supremacist antisemites argue that if the playing field were equal, then whites would “win,” but a Jewish conspiracy using Black people as puppets tricks white people into allowing themselves to lose. Antisemitism therefore allows racists to avoid the cognitive dissonance of holding two contradictory beliefs, and encourages them to nurse imagined racial grievances until they explode into murderous rage.

    Organizing against those who spread Jew-hatred is community defense, and antisemites must be rejected wherever they attempt to organize. With this in mind, we ask all readers to share our documentation and to devote time to our action items below. Please also follow our social media for updates about the conference. Get in touch if you have further information about the Next Steps conference, UI Media, or other far-right organizing in our region.

    Action Items

    ·        Contact Unity North Atlanta and ask them to cancel the antisemitic anti-vaccine event. The venue may not be aware of the conference’s true nature, so please be polite when presenting information.

    ·        Contact Serendipity Catering of Sandy Springs. Ask them why they are catering the Friday and Saturday lunches for this conference. Stress that they are not only supporting anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial causes, but far-right organizing and agitation against Jewish people. 

    ·        Reach out to Maine Street Coastal Cuisine of Cartersville, Georgia. Ask why they are catering the Friday night “VIP Dinner” featuring antisemitic speakers who proclaim that “God of the Jews is Satan himself.” Stay polite but insist that the business must cancel all support for this event.

    ·        UI Media spreads antisemitic propaganda as well as lies around COVID-19. Amazon Web Services host this website, with its domain name registered by GoDaddy. Contact Amazon Web Services to complain about its hosting an antisemitic propaganda website. Also contact GoDaddy about its domain name services for the site.

  • Ruining Confederate Memorial Day: A Report-Back from Stone Mountain, April 30th

    Ruining Confederate Memorial Day: A Report-Back from Stone Mountain, April 30th

    Originally published on ItsGoingDown.org.

    On the morning of April 30th, 2022 a coalition of civil rights organizations, local community civic action groups, leftist groups, street medics, armed security, antifascists, and other autonomous individuals gathered at a gazebo in downtown Stone Mountain, Georgia. They all shared a common goal: to march on and directly confront the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), a racist organization rallying to celebrate “Confederate Memorial Day” at the “Memorial Lawn” inside nearby Stone Mountain Park.

    Protesters give the finger to white power leader Sam Dickson

    The march began with speeches from the Atlanta NAACP, who reminded local and visiting attendees of the racist history of the carving at Stone Mountain and its long ties to white supremacy. The speeches worked to inspire the crowd and remind them of the importance of the day’s activities. Across the street, a small group of undercover cops gathered while their uniformed counterparts drove by to monitor the group. As the crowd moved into the street, beginning its two-mile march to combat the racist neo-Confederates, one of the aforementioned undercovers made his way into the crowd, though far from unnoticed. The crowd informed those nearby of his true identity, until eventually, he realized his mission had failed, and decided to leave. As the march pushed through the park, the momentum and energy increased as chants rang out in unison amongst the anti-racist coalition. Snacks and water were passed out to anyone who was in need to re-energize from the hot sun.

    The group arrived at its destination in an almost cinematic fashion, marching down the front lawn with Stone Mountain directly before them, almost unfathomable in size with its portrait of confederate generals desecrating the rockface. At the base of the mountain were the Sons of Confederate Veterans, some of them in full cosplay garb with period weapons. They fired off a single blank shot from their cannon to drown out the crowd’s chants, to little avail. Protestors were quick to exchange words with the neo-Confederates, getting as close as they could to disrupt the racist gathering. Between the two groups stood a line of Georgia State Patrol police ready to try to grab anyone who hurdled the barricade. The neo-Confederates felt emboldened by this, knowing that the police were there to protect them and their racist and hateful ideology. However, the spirits of those combating the racists were higher than ever, as Martin O’Toole, a known white supremacist who supports segregation, eugenics, and Holocaust denial, had his keynote speech drowned out by chants of “Black lives matter” “We are the winners,” and “This is why your grandkids won’t come see you.” O’Toole struggled to speak over the chants, and his discontent quickly spread throughout the rest of the crowd, who were visibly upset they could not hold their racist gathering in peace.

    As the event finished, protestors ensured that the neo-Confederates would not know peace until they had left the community for good. Chants of “Fuck you fascists” drowned out the ear-wrenching sounds of the closing bugles. Once the rally had finished, protestors made their way back to the gazebo, continuing to build upon the energy that had been set in motion by the day’s events. As the day closed out, they felt a sense of pride, knowing that once again, they hadn’t allowed racists to organize in their community without direct confrontation and sending a message both to the neo-Confederates and the Stone Mountain park management that so long as racists are allowed to hold space there, there will always be those willing to show up and combat them.

    Future Recommendations

    We are happy with the way the day went. This was the first time in recent memory that the Sons of Confederate Veterans have been confronted with numbers during their “Confederate Memorial Day” at Stone Mountain Park. While anti-racist counter-protesters were outnumbered two- or three- to one by the SCV, the crowd’s volume and energy made up for this. If Stone Mountain Park permits SCV events next year, anti-racists should return in greater numbers.

    The Sons of Confederate Veterans group contained obvious white nationalists, with not just Martin O’Toole as a keynote speaker, but his longtime racist associate Sam Dickson in the SCV crowd. A family with close ties to the white supremacist “Christian Identity” movement provided musical entertainment. Coinciding with the SCV rally, Patriot Front – a racist and fascist organization – placed propaganda in the community of Stone Mountain.

    Propaganda from the racist/fascist Patriot Front (on left) removed in Stone Mountain, April 30th

    Stone Mountain Park faces a dilemma: it has cited public safety to no longer host explicitly white supremacist events at the Park, after strong opposition to the white power “Rock Stone Mountain” rally of 2016. However, Stone Mountain Park is designated by state law as a Confederate memorial, and therefore feels obliged to host the SCV. The problem is that the SCV is shot through with ideological white supremacists. There is no principled distinction between SCV “heritage” and white supremacist hate. When Stone Mountain Park hosts racist events, they endanger the surrounding community.

    It is up to all of us to press on this issue, pushing against the normalization of white supremacy by Stone Mountain Park. For as long as the racist carvings remain on Stone Mountain, the site will serve as a rallying point for white supremacists. And where racists rally, anti-racists must mobilize to meet them. The anti-racist coalition did well on April 30th, we hope future mobilizations will only be bigger, broader, and more powerful.

  • William “Bill” Fisher: Arizona White Supremacist and Grassroots Republican Activist

    William “Bill” Fisher: Arizona White Supremacist and Grassroots Republican Activist

    William C. Fisher of Phoenix, Arizona is a longtime white supremacist who claims that “Hitler was right.” Under his online persona of “Preston Brooks,” Fisher references “the Day of the Rope,” a white supremacist fantasy of mass murder, and repeatedly calls for lynching. Fisher is also a grassroots Republican Party activist who serves as a committeeman with the Legislative District 20 Republican Party (LD20 GOP) in Arizona. Fisher’s wife, Kimberly K. Fisher, is also an LD20 GOP committee member. Kim Fisher is currently serving her second term on the Deer Valley Unified School District’s governing board, which is responsible for over thirty thousand students. As we discuss, Kim Fisher must be aware of her husband’s white supremacist agitation. She calls her husband “the smartest man I know” and consults with him on political issues.

    William C. Fisher and wife Kimberly K. Fisher
    (more…)
  • Meet Tyler Goggins, Also Known as Patriot Front Member “Andrew AL” of Bessemer, Alabama

    Meet Tyler Goggins, Also Known as Patriot Front Member “Andrew AL” of Bessemer, Alabama

    Christian Tyler Goggins (born 1993) of Bessemer, Alabama is a member of Patriot Front (PF), a white supremacist and fascist organization whose members just keep getting exposed. Goggins goes by the alias “Andrew AL” within the racist group. A trove of PF internal communications that was leaked online in January 2022 clearly identifies Goggins as “Andrew AL”. Goggins participated in PF’s masked national rally in Washington, DC on December 4, 2021 alongside other Alabama members. He also joined PF members in placing propaganda for the organization in Birmingham, Alabama the weekend before that demonstration. Goggins’ online trails connect him to other white supremacist circles such as the neo-Nazi bonehead music scene.

    Christian Tyler Goggins

    In a message sent before Patriot Front’s national demonstration in December, Goggins shared his home address to another Alabama member, “James AL”. “James AL” was supposed to leave his car at Goggins’ home, before another PF member, “Sean AL”, collected the two and drove them north. Goggins also identified himself by providing a CashApp account linked to his real name in an earlier message to “Sean AL”.

    After Patriot Front’s national rally, Goggins further confirmed his participation by posting to a PF regional chat that he was “Really glad I was able to make it out and finally be a part of one of the demonstrations”. According to leaked comments, Goggins and three other Patriot Front members also placed propaganda in Birmingham, Alabama on the night of Sunday, November 28, 2021 – less than a week before the road trip to the DC rally.

    Goggins as “Reichneck,” defending Patriot Front to white supremacist group on Telegram, February 2022

    On the Telegram messaging application, Goggins uses the name “Reichneck” –a reference to Hitler’s Third Reich. Goggins chose an image of segregationist politician and four-term governor of Alabama, George Wallace, as his profile picture. The “Reichneck” account is a member of the Telegram group for the White Lives Matter (WLM) racist network in Alabama. While Goggins does not seem particularly active in that network, in his leaked Patriot Front comments Goggins notified other Alabama PF members of an upcoming WLM rally. Goggins’ Telegram account is also a member of the “Southern white nationalists chat group”, which promotes and is closely tied to the white supremacist and Southern secessionist League of the South. In his comments to this chat, Goggins/“Reichneck” defended Patriot Front on February 4, 2021, insisting that Patriot Front was a true “WN [white nationalist] organization” and that nobody could find “a n[****]r or a s[**]c in PF uniform.”

    Goggins profile image on Venmo
    Tyler Goggins payment on Venmo to Travis Condor

    Tyler Goggins enjoys and is connected to the bonehead (racist “skinhead”) scene. In his profile image on the Venmo electronic payments app, Goggins wears a t-shirt for Vengeance, a late 1980s racist rock group from the UK. In his payment history, Goggins sent funds to Travis Condor, a bonehead with a history of violence who is affiliated with American Defense Skinheads and highly involved in the US white power music scene. As a sick joke, Goggins used Star of David icons to accompany his payment to the neo-Nazi.

    If you have further information on Goggins or other members of Patriot Front, please get in touch. We particularly seek information about Goggins’ work. As an active white supremacist, Goggins is a threat to co-workers, customers, and the communities he visits for his job.

    For an image gallery of yet-to-be-identified PF members, sorted by state and associated with their aliases within the organization, see here.

  • Video Presentation: “War in Ukraine… Where are the Fascists?”

    Based on our experiences and reports from international antifascists, we made this video to dispel misinformation around conflict in Ukraine.

    Key take-aways:

    • There are fascist adventurers in Ukraine, Russia, and also within US military. US white nationalists take a variety of positions.
    • “Campism” plays into fascist hands. Our analysis must focus on communities on the ground, not on picking a state & cheering for it.

    A .pdf version of the presentation is available here.