Update 8/11/2020: Marjorie Taylor Greene won in the GA14 Republican runoff and will likely head to Congress. Matt Gurtler was defeated in GA09.
On August 11th, Georgia Congressional candidates Marjorie Taylor Greene (14th District) and Matt Gurtler (9th District) will compete in runoff elections for their Districts’ Republican nominations. Greene faces John Cowan for the 14th District nomination, while Gurtler is competing against Andrew Clyde in the 9th District. Both the 9th and the 14th Districts lean heavily Republican, so whoever wins the GOP nomination for each of these districts is likely to take a seat in Congress. Both Greene and Gurtler have ties to American Patriots USA, an ostensibly pro-Trump organization with roots in the neo-Nazi and Klan undergrounds.
Chester Doles video with Marjorie Greene sign in background
We have covered the “American Patriots USA” (APUSA) organization in north Georgia since it was formed last year, in the wake of a September far-Right rally in Dahlonega. That rally’s organizer and APUSA’s leader, Chester Doles, has a history spanning decades in the white supremacist movement. Doles led a Ku Klux Klan group, operated the Georgia unit of the neo-Nazi “National Alliance”, and more recently supported the violent Hammerskins racist gang. Other white nationalists are also involved with APUSA, and Doles has boasted that there is no “Jew loving [… in] this Crew”. The organization has also built tactical alliances with some far-Right people of color.
As we documented in our May article, Doles has now built bridges to Republican candidates. In late February, Doles and other members posed with Marjorie Taylor Greene behind an APUSA banner. In March, State House Representative and current GA09 candidate Matt Gurtler talked to an APUSA meeting and posed for a group photo.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Greene in campaign advertisement opposing “ANTIFA”
When asked by the press about her February photo with Doles, Greene did not disavow Doles but railed against “sleazy attacks” from the “Fake News Media”. Since advancing to the runoff for the GA14 nomination, Greene has been criticized for her racist and antisemitic remarks as well as her support for the far-Right QAnon subculture. While some Republicans have belatedly realized that Greene will be an embarrassment to their party if she goes to Congress, they have mounted little meaningful resistance.
American Patriots USA has not officially endorsed Greene. However, Doles has called Greene “our friend” and displays a Greene sign at his home even though he lives in Georgia’s 9th not the 14th District. APUSA uses Greene’s refusal to disavow to its advantage, cultivating an impression that the organization and the candidate are close. In early June Doles re-circulated the photo of Greene behind the APUSA banner and asked his contacts on VKontakte social media: “Will you stand with Marjorie Greene?” Doles has posted manyothertimesaboutGreene in recent months.
APUSA’s “Say What You Want in Dahlonega?” Facebook page has reshared the February picture of Greene with the APUSA banner, as well as a Greene campaign advertisement against “ANTIFA”. Joshua Mote, APUSA’s current Vice President and former Lumpkin County Coordinator, posted about Greene on his personal Facebook, writing in July: “Glad to know someone like you [Greene] to take on this fight.”
This impression that APUSA is close to Greene, made possible
by the candidate’s own refusal to disavow, facilitates APUSA recruitment and
its networking within Georgia GOP circles.
On July 10, APUSA officially endorsed Matt Gurtler’s run for Congress. As we have noted, Gurtler has never apologized for speaking to an American Patriots USA meeting, instead normalizing the organization riddled with white supremacists as “a pro-gun, conservative group that supports President Trump.” However, relations between the organization and Gurtler seemed to fray during the time APUSA member and militiaman Michael Boggus ran his own campaign in GA09. At one point, APUSA even designed a t-shirt portraying Gurtler as “nutless & gutless”. As evidenced by APUSA’s current endorsement, friendship has been restored.
Saturday, July 11: Joshua Mote, Matt Gurtler, Michael Boggus, Rand Paul
One day after APUSA’s July endorsement of Gurtler, a contingent from the organization attended a Hall County GOP event featuring Gurtler and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. After the event, Gurtler and Rand Paul posed with APUSA Vice President Joshua Mote as well as Michael Boggus, APUSA’s militiaman “State Director”. These photos were later circulated by APUSA, again normalizing an organization with deep connections in the neo-Nazi and Klan undergrounds as just another group of Republican patriots.
Conclusion
At the start of 2019, American Patriots USA were attempting to run a Klansman for Sheriff in White County, north Georgia. Now, the organization has built ties with several Republican candidates. Most of these candidates are on the political fringes, but APUSA’s friends discussed in this update could go to Congress. In today’s Republican Party, even cozying up to violent neo-Nazis is acceptable to many.
On May 30th Hamby spied upon a Black Lives Matter protest at the Austin Capitol and gleefully live-streamed as a protester was manhandled by cops.
But when Hamby got home, he found a message – apparently left by antifascists – on his door. He made several outraged tweets indicating a desire to “protect his home”, likely realizing the impossibility of defending against an enemy he does not know and cannot see.
He even put out a challenge to “fight Antifa” on his birthday – which he spent home alone – but antifascists do not let their enemies dictate, or even anticipate, the time and place of battle.
With his characteristic impulsiveness and rage, Hamby filmed himself tearing down a George Floyd banner posted outside his Midtown Commons residence.
Unfortunately for Chef Goyardee even these futile and impotent displays only result in more attention. Sources report that flyers were found around the Midtown Commons area shortly thereafter.
Additionally a large banner denouncing Dustin Ray Hamby and warning his neighbors was found posted to the nearby dog park he frequents.
While only local antifascists know for sure, it seems likely that Hamby will continue making himself a target until he publicly denounces Patriot Front and the broader fascist movement, forever leaving behind bigoted political activism and internet commentary – at the very least.
Last night, State House Representative and candidate in the Republican primary for the 9th Congressional District, Matt Gurtler, issued a statement decrying “sleazy attacks” and the “fake news media”. These comments arrived two months after Gurtler talked to a meeting of American Patriots USA (APUSA) – a white nationalist front group founded by Klansmen and neo-Nazis – and two days after the story broke in the media.
In his comments to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Matt Gurtler doubled down by calling APUSA a “pro-gun, conservative group that supports President Trump”. At the March meeting, Gurtler portrayed the organization as a positive response to “socialism on the rise”.
Matt Gurler at American Patriots USA meeting, March 14, 2020
The core members of APUSA are committed white supremacists. Founder Chester Doles is an unreformed neo-Nazi who continues to network within the racist scene and circulate its propaganda. Another key APUSA member, Michael Carothers AKA Michael Weaver, maintains the “White Information Network” site, where he asks readers to support terrorists such as “Olympic Park Bomber” Eric Rudolph.
Militant white nationalists have led
a wave of terror in recent years, with outrages such as the Tree of Life
synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018; the Christchurch, New Zealand
mosque attacks last year; and August’s racist massacre in El Paso. While
Gurtler mouths empty catchphrases such as, “Racism doesn’t have any place in
our community”, his actions embolden the racist movement.
It is reprehensible for Matt Gurtler to hide behind his “Mexican-American” wife after supporting white supremacists. His wife’s ancestry is irrelevant to Gurtler’s political decision. Gurtler’s response is particularly obscene since APUSA founder Chester Doles has targeted and scapegoated Latino communities in north Georgia for twenty years.
Instead of admitting poor judgment,
Gurtler howls for his critics to “Bring it.”
If you oppose antisemitism and white supremacy, speak out when they are normalized.
At the time of writing, the novel coronavirus pandemic is threatening untold lives. Even under a different set of rulers, a dysfunctional health system and slashed safety nets would place many in harm’s way. To add to this, the Trump regime lied and delayed when it had time, further compounding damage. Everything that we can do to protect each other – from physical distancing measures, to mutual aid networks and advocacy for those most at risk – makes a difference.
“5 Demands” circulating online, author unknown
The organized far-Right is not standing by idly in this crisis. However, their positions vary from denialism and minimization, to conspiracy-mongering and even chatter about actively accelerating and worsening the situation. As an organization, Atlanta Antifascists will continue to monitor and document these far-Right responses. With the situation changing rapidly, documentation will mostly take place on our socialmedia, which we encourage you to follow.
We must stand by our neighbors and challenge scapegoating at every opportunity. In particular, the anti-Asian racism deliberately fostered by Trump – and also boosted by fascists and white nationalist groups away from the center of power – must be consistently opposed.
Supporting mutual aid projects and networks is also crucial. Food4Life is one noteworthy survival program in Atlanta. You can read about it and support it – or reach out for assistance – here. If you have funds, please also consider supporting this fundraiser for refugees impacted in Atlanta. See ItsGoingDown for a list of COVID-19 community mutual aid projects across North America.
We admire the courage shown daily by
workers at the front of this pandemic, not only hospital staff and medical
workers, but also under-valued and exploited grocery clerks, delivery people,
trash collectors, and others providing vital services. Our communities are
behind you and will fight for you.
Over the last four years, the people of Portland have witnessed a surge in far-right activity, motivated by the Trump presidency. Beginning with pro-Trump rallies in 2016 attended by members of far-right militias and white supremacist groups, this activity expanded into 2017, 2018, and 2019 as Joey Gibson attempted to make a media and political career through ringleading large gatherings of these violent agitators, buoying up groups like Identity Europa, the Proud Boys, and the Portland-area Daily Stormer group.
Gibson and company’s forays into Portland would not have been able to occur without the help of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), the city of Portland, and the local court system. PPB’s collaboration with Joey Gibson and Patriot Prayer is well-documented. The City government has refused to respond to the revelation that Quincy Franklin and Gregory Isaacson, two bigoted followers of Patriot Prayer, are employed by the city. And the courts with jurisdiction over Portland have now fallen prey to influence by Patriot Prayer. In this article we will lay out the malign influence exerted by Joey Gibson’s associates at every stage of a court case. From the filing of charges, to the disruption of the trial, to an eventual mistrial due to the actions of a Patriot Prayer associate who was a member of the ostensibly “impartial” jury, this case now joins the spiraling list of occasions in which the far-right has hijacked the mechanisms of city government in order to harass its denizens, and the activists working to protect their community from fascist violence.
Recently flyers describing the activities of Austin Nazi leader, Dustin Ray Hamby (aka Chef Goyardee) covered the interior of the Midtown Commons apartments located at 7211 Easy Wind Dr. as well as the windows of nearby businesses.
Residents saw several dozen flyers on each floor of Hamby’s apartment building and learned of his role as a Network Directing Officer of Patriot Front. Hamby coordinated van rentals and AirBNB reservations for the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, thus bearing significant responsibility for the death of antifascist martyr Heather Heyer and the serious injuries to dozens of others. It is important to note that Patriot Front is simply the rebranding of Vanguard America following this deadly attack by Vanguard member, James A. Fields.
A flyer was seen on the window of Hamby’s former employer, Black Star Co-Op
Nobody wants a racist, violent, drunk coworker and any business that employs the Nazi Dustin Ray Hamby or his associates is sure to face a community boycott — at an absolute minimum.
Hamby has also been named as a defendant in a lawsuit concerning Unite The Right, albeit under his alias “Chef Goyardee” before his true identity was revealed to the world. CenTex ARA entirely rejects participation in or cooperation with the “law” and holds no illusions the capitalist State will strike meaningful blows against a Fascist movement that reinforces their rule. Hamby’s own neighbors are far more likely to inflict reprisals against him than are the courts, especially now that other Midtown Commons residents know his identity. Reports of escalating actions against him would come as no surprise.
All fascists and neo-nazis would do well to learn that there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in Texas. If they are afraid of publicly organizing events antifascists will come to them instead. They are far safer quitting their fascist activities, publicly naming and denouncing their leaders, and working to destroy their former organizations. Short of that there is no hope for them whatsoever.
Three members of the white supremacist group The Base have been arrested in Georgia, as part of a broadersweep against the organization. The Georgia arrests were revealed Thursday, January 16.
Georgia “The Base” arrestees L-R: Luke Austin Lane of Silver Creek, Michael John Helterbrand of Dalton, and Jacob Kaderli of Dacula.
The Georgia arrestees were allegedly plotting to murder a couple who they believed to be “Antifa”. They also allegedly planned to kill another member of The Base who helped hatch the murder plot but who they considered incompetent. Read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the Georgia arrests here.
One of those arrested, Luke Austin Lane of Silver Creek, Georgia, went by the online alias “TMB” and was the main recruiter for The Base in our state. On the Fascist Forge website, Lane/TMB’s profile was connected to that of Matthew Ryan Burchfield, a neo-Nazi we exposed last year and who is currently in Ukraine.
Atlanta Antifascists are following this situation closely. See our Twitter and Facebook pages for updates.
In the summer of 2018, longstanding racist leader and Atlanta attorney Sam Dickson traveled for weeks in Russia. According to an interview with “The Political Cesspool” white nationalist radio show not long after his return (broadcast August 11, 2018), “several other people” accompanied Dickson on his trip in Russia. The July 2018 trip centered around attending a commemoration for the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family by Bolsheviks, and Dickson claims to have met with several “Russian nationalists” while in the country.
Sam Dickson message on Twitter about 2018 trip to Russia
Our organization has discussed Dickson at length in otherarticles. He’s a key figure in the white nationalist movement, with a history spanning several decades. Dickson has talked at every conference for the “suit-and-tie” racists of American Renaissance since the first one in 1994. Dickson is listed as a Director for the shadowy Charles Martel Society, which publishes the Occidental Quarterly – an attempt to provide white nationalism with a veneer of respectability and intellectualism. By providing seed money for the National Policy Institute, the Charles Martel Society also helped to create the modern “Alt-Right.” Dickson mentors and seemingly employs younger white nationalists in the Atlanta area.
The 2018 Russia trip was “only the second time I’ve been in Russia,” Dickson remarked in a follow-up appearance on The Political Cesspool (broadcast September 1, 2018). In March 2015, Dickson gave a speech at the “International Russian Conservative Forum” (IRCF) in St. Petersburg. Dickson’s longtime political associate Jared Taylor of American Renaissance also traveled to the IRCF and talked. In total, the IRCF attracted approximately 150 representatives from far-Right organizations and parties in Russia, Western Europe, and the US.
Sam Dickson speaking at the International Russian Conservative Forum in St. Petersburg, March 2015
Here, we identify another member of Dickson’s group who traveled to Russia in July 2018: Atlanta attorney Michael A. Dominy. We discuss Dominy’s political connections, Dickson and Dominy’s apparent main contact in Russia, and that contact’s involvement with the state.
Michael A. Dominy
Atlanta attorney Michael A. Dominy
Michael Alan Dominy is a lawyer specializing in family law who practices from an office on Piedmont Avenue in midtown Atlanta. Dominy was admitted to the Georgia State Bar in 1985. His long-deceased father directed the Georgia Department of Public Safety. According to the website for the Dominy Law Firm, LLC, two of Michael Dominy’s brothers are also attorneys. Dominy converted to Orthodox Christianity a decade ago. He has made several trips to Russia before the most recent one. In 2016 Dominy published a video from Moscow “last year” and commented that: “This was the most recent of my many trips to Russia. They’ve become more like pilgrimages.”
Dominy portrays Russia as under threat from a conspiracy involving “internationalists” and “bankers” – an antisemitic dog-whistle
As suggested by his social media, Dominy is sympathetic to the Russian state and far-Right politics. On Facebook, Dominy circulates stories from RT, Sputnik News, SouthFront and The Duran, all of which issue pro-Kremlin propaganda. Other posts shared by Dominy this year include a story about “Soros […] conspiring against humanity” as well as materials from the anti-immigrant “Voice of Europe”.
Carol O’Toole and Martin K. O’Toole
Dominy is part of white nationalist Sam Dickson’s circles in Georgia. Fulton County Superior Court records show that Dominy was twice a co-plaintiff with Sam Dickson in filings regarding real estate property in 2000 and 2002. Dominy also knows Dickson’s friends and associates. For example, Dominy’s Facebook profile is connected to white supremacist John C. Hall, Jr. of Dublin, Georgia, who has also worked as an accountant for Dickson. Another Facebook friend of Dominy’s is John Weatherman, an antisemite who we have discussed before. In addition, Dominy is connected on social media to Carol Barfield O’Toole, the wife of Marietta attorney and Sons of Confederate Veterans – Georgia Division spokesman, Martin K. O’Toole. Martin O’Toole does not have a Facebook profile himself. He is the President and Chairman for the Charles Martel Society and has an earlier history promoting Holocaust denial alongside Dickson.
Photo posted by Justin Stephen Owens in 2019, “liked” on Facebook by Michael Dominy
We were surprised to see Dominy’s account linked to Justin Stephen Owens, a participant in the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. We wrote about Justin Owens in 2018, when we exposed a Georgia cop’s pro-KKK social media activity. Dominy and Owens do not appear to be close. While Dominy was traveling in 2018, Justin Owens posted that he would like to finally meet Dominy “after all these years of hearing about you.” Dominy probably knew of Owens’ Klan sympathies, and he certainly knows of them now. This year, Justin Owens posted a picture of a young man wearing a “The Klan wants you!” t-shirt and posing in front of a burnt cross. Dominy “liked” the image.
Michael Lewis Lawrence
Mike Lawrence at white power gathering circa 2009
A potentially more important contact is Michael Lewis Lawrence, who keeps in touch with Dominy on social media. In the late 1980s, Lawrence was a founding member of the Confederate Hammerskins gang. Lawrence was among five Hammerskins convicted for vandalizing a synagogue and for attacks against Black and Latino people, for which he served a sentence of almost five years. After the Hammerskins, Lawrence went on to form the Christian Guard, which promoted racist and antisemitic “Christian Identity” theology. In 2007, Lawrence entered Volksfront, another racist bonehead group, and stayed until that organization disbanded five years later. Although Lawrence was disillusioned with neo-Nazi bonehead groups by the end of Volksfront – describing them as attracting “pedophiles, sociopaths, misfits and retards” – he did not leave the racist cause but rather changed approaches. During roughly the same time period, Lawrence shifted religion from Christian Identity to a “Folkish” (i.e. racist) version of Orthodox Christianity, as seen on the “Kindred Apostolic Orthodox Ministries” blog. [1]
Michael Dominy comments approvingly on 2018 Facebook post by “Mike Contro Rossi” / Michael Lewis Lawrence. (Original post by Lawrence has since been hidden or deleted.)
At the end of 2015, Lawrence was listed under the alias “Mike Romano” as one of the Directors for the World National Conservative Movement (WNCM) following “a conference held over the Internet”. WNCM had been announced earlier in 2015 as an alliance of parties, organizations and individuals fighting the values of “liberalism, multiculturalism and tolerance.” WNCM has its genesis in the 2015 “International Russian Conservative Forum” in St. Petersburg, the same event attended by Dickson and Jared Taylor. A driving force behind the WNCM was Yury Lyubomirsky, then of the St. Petersburg branch of the Rodina (“Motherland”) party, working closely with the Russian Imperial Movement. Lyubomirsky was also the primary organizer of the IRCF.
Lawrence/“Romano” was one of only two US individuals listed on the Board for the WNCM, the other being now-disgraced neo-Nazi Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Worker Party. Several US far-Right organizations, such as the Council of Conservative Citizens, American Renaissance, and the American Freedom Party were also mentioned as participants in the Movement. Lawrence/“Romano” was listed as a representative of the “Society of St John the Goth” (AKA “Society of Saint John of Gothia”). [2] After the initial push, the WNCM does not appear to have gone far, although its page on the Russian-language VKontakte network still circulates materials. Some people and groups from MNCM still cooperate. [3]
Michael Dominy: Recap
We don’t know the details of any common political work by Dominy and Lawrence. However, their interactions suggest a similar political outlook and agenda. Klansman Justin Owens stating that he heard about Dominy for “years” also suggests something about Dominy’s political milieu.
“Let’s not forget who their killers are”: another dog-whistle from Dominy
More importantly: Dominy is doubtless part of Sam Dickson’s circles in Georgia. According to his Facebook profile, Dominy is acquainted with white supremacist accountant John C. Hall, Jr. of Dublin; antisemite John Weatherman of Atlanta; Carol Barfield O’Toole of Marietta, the wife of Charles Martel Society president Martin K. O’Toole; as well as Dickson himself.
We will now discuss how we know that Michael Dominy was part of Dickson’s party traveling in Russia.
2018 Trip to Russia
Dominy posted video and photos from his 2018 travel in Russia to Facebook. When we compare Dickson’s account of his 2018 trip to Russia, with Dominy’s online comments and images, it is apparent that they were both traveling together as part of a single group.
Carol O’Toole comments to Dominy: “Not in Beijing yet?”
On July 3, 2018, Dominy posted an image of himself in San Francisco, California, to which Carol O’Toole replied: “Not in Beijing yet?” Carol O’Toole must therefore have known the itinerary.
In discussion accompanying a picture from Beijing, Dominy announced: “on our way to Russia!” Commenting again on the San Francisco picture, Dominy informed John C. Hall that “We will be crossing the border at 4:17 am tomorrow [Monday, July 9, 2018]”. Dominy’s first photograph of that trip from inside Russia was a picture of the sunset at Lake Baikal in Siberia, which Dominy noted was from July 10. According to an online schedule, the Westbound Trans-Manchurian Express train departs from Beijing on Saturday, arriving at the China-Russia border at 4:17AM local time on Monday. On Tuesday evening, the train reaches Irkutsk in Siberia, described by one travelers’ guide as the “obvious” stop for Lake Baikal. Dominy posted otherpictures from Irktusk. One could have some days’ rest in Irktusk and still arrive at Yekaterinburg in time for the mass commemoration for the Romanovs on the night of July 16-17. Dominy published brief footage from this commemoration to Facebook.
Map showing the current Trans-Siberian Railway system. Trans-Manchurian Express is the route going from (or to) Beijing which passes through Harbin.
On his first Political Cesspool appearance discussing his 2018 trip, Dickson stated that he took the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing to Yekaterinburg for the same commemoration. Dickson mentioned going through a China-Russia border control. This means that Dickson must have traveled on the Trans-Manchurian Express, which is the only route that does not pass through Mongolia. The Trans-Manchurian Express is now incorporated within the overall Trans-Siberian Railway system. Unless he wanted an additional week – not just a few days off the train – at or before Yekaterinburg, Dickson must have been on the exact same train from Beijing as Michael Dominy.
Michael Dominy tells Justin Stephen Owens that he will return from travels on July 29th.
Dominy and Dickson also returned to the United States at approximately the same time. Dominy told Justin Owens on Facebook that he would be back on the 29th and would be happy to meet up after then. On July 30th, 2018, Dickson posted to Twitter that he was “just back from 30 days in Russia”. Dickson’s claim about the number of days in Russia does not match the rest of his account of the journey, which would fit twenty or so days in Russia and perhaps thirty days of travel total. [4]
According to Dickson’s podcast account of the journey, the group proceeded from Yekaterinburg to Moscow. (There’s some evidence of a stop in Kazan.) In Moscow, Dickson “met with a person I know there, who is an aide to the Duma and who showed us around.” Dickson mentions being brought to the Central Armed Forces Museum by his guide, as well as revisiting the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. We will discuss Dickson’s friend in the next section. The group seems to have ended their trip in St. Petersburg, since on July 26 Dominy posted that “We have traversed the continent” and had arrived there.
Dmitry Oveshnikov
Although attending the commemoration for the Romanovs was the focus of the 2018 trip and the group did some sightseeing, Sam Dickson reports that he met with a number of “Russian nationalists” while in the country. Dmitry Oveshnikov (Дмитрий Овешников), the person who showed the group around Moscow, is one such person.
Oveshnikov knew both Dickson and Dominy before the 2018 trip. On Dickson’s website, a message for Easter 2017 stated that “I was fortunate to visit the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour [in Moscow] with a true Russian Dmitri O. who acted as my guide.” If one accepts Dickson’s claim that 2018 was only his “second time” in the country, the earlier visit to Moscow must have occurred in 2015, either before or after the IRCF in St. Petersburg.
Oveshnikov tags Dominy in 2016 Facebook post.
The Facebook account for Oveshnikov (“Dmitriy Aweshnikov”) is linked to both Dickson and Michael Dominy. Dominy must have known Oveshnikov prior to his 2018 travel in Russia, since Oveshnikov tagged Dominy in a 2016 social media post.
Cezarium site
Oveshnikov is the main promoter and seemingly organizer of a website named Cezarium, which describes itself as a “geopolitical portal” discussing “politics, economics, technology, culture and military affairs.” The site favors expanded Russian geopolitical power to offset – as one English-language article puts it – the world threat from “American neo-Trotskyist world utopia” (which Trump is celebrated as opposing) [5]. The Cezarium domain was registered at the end of 2015. Historical domain records show a probably bogus name. While a handful of English-language pieces appeared on the site this year, Cezarium is mostly in Russian. One of Oveshnikov’s contacts, Kris Roman of “Euro-Rus” in Belgium [6], described Cezarium’s slant and its creators:
“Cezarium is created by patriotic and conservative Russians with ‘nice higher connections’.”
Roman may have exaggerated Cezarium’s “higher connections” to boost his own sense of importance. However, Dmitry Oveshnikov definitely has some.
In mid-February 2014, Oveshnikov appeared on Public Television of Russia discussing Crimea
In February 2014, Dmitry Oveshnikov was interviewed on Public Television of Russia as a “political expert” about Crimea, during the crisis but before Crimea’s annexation. The next month, an article quoted Oveshnikov as a political analyst involved in the Federation Council’s working group on Ukraine, with Oveshnikov characterizing new laws accompanying the change of power in Ukraine as illegitimate. A 2017 regional government statement listed Oveshnikov among notable attendees of a “Slavic Unity” festival held in Klintsy. Oveshnikov was noted as a “leading consultant” to the Federation Council’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. The mentions of Oveshnikov working as a consultant or analyst for the Federation Council (upper house of the Federal Assembly) suggest that Dickson got it wrong when he described his friend as an “aide to the Duma” (the lower house). Oveshnikov is also connected on Facebook to Konstantin Kosachev, who heads the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Federation Council.
Oveshnikov (3rd from left) at Federation Council, late 2016
Yury Lyubomirsky, the coordinator of the 2015 IRCF in St. Petersburg and a main organizer of the WNCM, is also linked to Oveshnikov on Facebook.
Analysis
Dickson shared some interesting details from his 2018 Russian trip. For example, he stated that the far-Right nationalists had two major criticisms of Putin: that Putin did not have a clear successor, and that Putin had failed to control popular culture. The Russian far-Rightists Dickson talked to were apparently disturbed by Black people appearing in popular media. Other details from the trip remain unknown: for example, the identities of the other “Russian nationalists” who Dickson met and the extent to which Michael Dominy and the rest of the travelers were present during these additional discussions.
Sam Dickson and Richard Spencer, image posted 2016 by Dickson and liked by Dmitry Oveshnikov. Dickson has now deleted the image, probably because of falling out with Spencer.
Beyond Dickson’s comments, we do not know the content of these meetings and discussions. But the fact they occurred at all is significant. A few months before the trip, one US writer claimed that “Russia’s interests in American white supremacists” had “effectively dried up”. Good reasons supported this claim. Two US racist leaders who had consistently pushed for an alignment with the Russian state – Richard Spencer and Matthew Heimbach – were suffering reversals of fortune post-Charlottesville, with Heimbach especially disgraced. The Alt-Right, and other white nationalists adjacent to it, were in disarray. Yet when Dickson and company traveled to Russia, members of far-Right groups wished to meet with them.
Further, Michael Dominy and Sam Dickson’s friend Dmitry Oveshnikov serves Russian state interests. Oveshnikov works as a consultant for Russia’s parliament, apparently for the upper house’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. In early 2014, Oveshnikov gave interviews in which he promoted regime talking points, for example by reducing events in Ukraine to the involvement of “neo-Nazis from the ‘Right Sector’”. [7] While Oveshnikov’s “higher connections” can be exaggerated, they exist.
Political Cesspool broadcast
From the perspective of either Russian far-Right militants or the Russian state, we see no evidence that discussions in 2018 bore immediate fruit. However, upon his return Dickson appeared on the Political Cesspool podcast [8], praising what he described as a healthy society and a mostly good regime in Russia. For Dickson’s white nationalist listeners, being reminded in mid-2018 that they had international friends may have been a minor morale boost. Dickson’s advocacy suggests that he was encouraged by the meetings in Russia.
Conclusion
We have documented that Atlanta attorney Michael A. Dominy is part of racist leader Sam Dickson’s network and that he accompanied Sam Dickson and others on their 2018 trip in Russia. The trip, centering around a historic commemoration, also involved discussion with members of far-Right movements in Russia. We discussed Dominy and Dickson’s contact in Moscow, Dmitry Oveshnikov, and his connection to state power. The networking which took place during Dominy and Dickson’s 2018 trip is significant not because it achieved big results but as an example of an ongoing project.
It’s important to note that there is no full consensus in the US white nationalist movement around Russia. For example, some members of the white power Rise Above Movement have cultivated links to Azov in Ukraine. Other white nationalists find Putin to be an inspirational figure when it comes to the cultural promotion of nationalism and Orthodox traditionalism. And finally, others don’t pay much attention to either Russia or Ukraine.
As we release this documentation, we want to be clear about our politics. For us, white nationalism is not an issue of “USA versus Russia”. Such framing not only fuels xenophobia, it also suggests a disease metaphor in which the national body begins life as “pure” but is then corrupted or infected from outside. The truth is that racism in the US has been present from the origin of the nation state itself. If one wants to know where the modern white nationalist movement comes from, then the legacy of the Ku Klux Klan, resistance to the Civil Rights movement, or ongoing institutional racism would all be better starting points than Putin.
We also reject any conflation of the Russian state and those ruled under it. When we expose far-Right participants in our region traveling to Russia to network, this is because we see ourselves as part of the same movement as anti-fascists in Russia, who have been harshly repressed by Putin’s state apparatus.
If you have information on racist or far-Right organizing in our region, please get in touch.
Notes
[1] Lawrence used to promote the “Kindred Apostolic Ministries” in his signature on the Stormfront forum, where he was the user “FolkishOrthodoxy” (earlier “VFMike83”). Lawrence’s friend Craig Spaulding – who was in Volksfront with Lawrence and who went on to be a member of the Traditionalist Worker Party – did much of the actual labor for the Kindred Apostolic Ministries site, according to Spaulding’s leaked TWP messages as “John Mosby”. Spaulding was “easttnskin83” on Stormfront.
[2] Lawrence’s friend Craig Spaulding (see Note 1) assembled the Society of Saint John of Gothia site.
[3] Another thing interests us about Lawrence. Online posts allege that Mike Lawrence is a congregant at St. Nektarios Orthodox Church in Lenoir City, Tennessee. One listed address for Lawrence is in nearby Maryville, TN. That residential address appears in Blount County property records as owned by Kristine Duke. Kristine Chloe Duke is the daughter of David Duke, the neo-Nazi and former Klansman who believes that Russia holds “the key to white survival” and who lived for several years in that country. Kristine Duke’s mother, Chloe Hardin Black, is currently married to Don Black, the webmaster of the white power Stormfront forum. Because of this link to the Duke family, it’s important to point out that Michael Lewis Lawrence is different to M.C. “Mike” Lawrence, who was campaign manager for David Duke’s 2016 Senate run but quit before the election.
[4] It is impossible for Dickson to have taken the train route he discussed (which departs once a week), left Russia when he did, and spend exactly thirty days in Russia. To spend closer to thirty days, he would have had to spend a lot of extra time at or east of Yekaterinburg, assuming party’s route did not involve back-tracking. That scenario is very unlikely.
[5] The “neo-Trotskyist” language of that article is based on exaggerating the numbers of ex-Trotskyists in the early Neo-Conservative movement. Since so much antisemitic writing describes communism and Neo-Conservatism as vast Jewish conspiracies – with Trotsky featuring prominently in theories of communism as Jewish plot – the author does not need to mention anything explicitly for target audiences to receive the message.
[6] Roman attended the IRCF in 2015 and at the end of that year was named as a member of the Board for the WNCM. In 2018, Roman was an election observer in the Russia-backed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (in the Donbass region of Ukraine.)
[7] For some useful context on the adoption of “anti-fascist” discourse by the Russian state, see here.
[8] The main host of the Political Cesspool, James Edwards, is Executive Vice President of the Charles Martel Society, where Martin K. O’Toole is President and Chairman. Dickson is listed alongside William Regnery II as a Director.
In early April, our organization exposed metro Atlanta resident John Lee Clemmer as a member of the white nationalist organization Identity Evropa (IE) and an active racist propagandist operating under the alias “Why Tea”. Clemmer bankrolled an expensive banner action by the white power organization IE on Georgia Tech campus in late 2017. Clemmer also snuck far-Right messages into his science fiction novels and forcefully campaigned against a Black teaching assistant at the University of Georgia.
John Lee Clemmer
We identified “Why Tea” as John Lee Clemmer via leaked discussion logs from IE, which were published by the Unicorn Riot independent media collective. Identity Evropa has now rebranded as the “American Identity Movement” (AmIM). At the time, we did not know whether Clemmer had stuck with the white power organization after its name change, but new evidence establishes that Clemmer has remained in IE/AmIM.
With the publication of our article on Clemmer, we alerted Clemmer’s employers at International Business Machines (IBM), where he was working as a managing consultant for Cloud Identity Services. We also mailed flyers to Clemmer’s neighbors in Smyrna, Georgia, informing them of the racist propagandist in their midst. In response, Clemmer lied and insisted that he had been misidentified.
In May, we updated our article to state that “We have received multiple indications that John L. Clemmer is no longer working for IBM”. We pointedly did not write that Clemmer had been fired.
Now, Unicorn Riot has published a new set of leaked messages from AmIM, providing discussion from that group’s “Dox Support” channel. This channel was established so that members of the racist organization who had been publicly identified could discuss how best to respond. John Lee Clemmer appears in this channel as “Humanbiodiversity”: a scientific-sounding euphemism for racism. In one message, “Humanbiodiversity” discusses “when antifa sent flyers to all my neighbors” and the neighbors’ responses. Due to the timing and details of what occurred, this could only refer to the mailing of John Lee Clemmer’s neighborhood. Elsewhere, “Humanbiodiversity” clumsily switches from writing about his experience in the first person to referring to John Lee Clemmer in the third person. Since Clemmer shared his thoughts in a closed chat exclusively for AmIM members, it is clear that Clemmer stuck with the white nationalist organization IE after it rebranded as AmIM.
In the “Dox Support” discussion, Clemmer/“Humanbiodiversity” revealed on April 20th that his employer had decided not to fire him and had ruled – despite mountains of evidence to the contrary – that there was nothing to link Clemmer to the racist propagandist “Why Tea”. By the time that Clemmer made this comment, our organization had even noted that John Lee Clemmer maintained a playlist of racist propaganda under his own name in addition to his materials as “Why Tea”.
John Lee Clemmer as “Humanbiodiversity” in leaked AmIM chats, April 20, 2019
On April 26, Clemmer/“Humanbiodiversity” stated that he was doing the “deny deny deny thing” to the public. In another comment from May 5, Clemmer disclosed his strategy for the future: “It’s disinformation about reality for me from now on”. Clemmer then joked that he was actually an electrician (rather than an IBM employee).
John Lee Clemmer/“Humanbiodiversity” admits to widespread lying.
Finally, on May 14, Clemmer/“Humanbiodiversity” gloated that “Antifa is now 0 for 2 with me”, having neither got him fired for what he admits were fire-able breaches of his workplace’s code of conduct, nor preventing him from getting a new job. It appears that Clemmer left IBM having received new employment after the company had botched its investigation.
John Lee Clemmer gloats, May 14, 2019
John Lee Clemmer as “Why Tea” on Twitter. Note the date of Clemmer’s all-caps post, which corresponds to Clemmer’s gloating in AmIM “Dox Support”.
With his comments to the “Dox Support” channel, Clemmer revealed just how badly IBM mishandled its internal investigation. While investigating, IBM made no effort to follow up with our organization, for example asking questions about our research or requesting further documentation. Predictably, IBM are now keeping quiet about their clearing of an active racist propagandist.
Now that this sad chapter has concluded, all we can do is publish evidence of IBM mishandling its investigation, and of John Lee Clemmer’s “deny deny deny” strategy about his white power involvement.
If you have further information on Clemmer, his current employment, the American Identity Movement, or other white nationalists in our region, please get in touch.
On Tuesday, September 3rd, Atlanta Antifascists mailed 250 flyers to Dahlonega, north Georgia residents, warning them about “fourth-generation Klansman” and active neo-Nazi Chester James Doles, Jr.
North Georgia residents and Southern anti-racists are organizing against the September 14 far-Right rally. We hope that by warning Doles’ neighbors about his history as a violent Klansman and his continued neo-Nazi activity, we impair Doles’ ability to organize.
Flyer about Chester Doles (click here to download .pdf)
Follow our Twitter account for updates on the Dahlonega rally. If you have information on Doles or any of his associates, please get in touch.
