Jason Kessler, a onetime gadfly conservative journalist and neo-Confederate activist who convened an array of violent white nationalist groups under the banner of the Unite the Right rally in 2017, took the witness stand in a federal courtroom in Charlottesville, Va. on Monday.
As Karen Dunn, a lead counsel for the plaintiffs, briskly walked Kessler through the evidence, he became increasingly combative, by turns defiant and evasive, while also lashing out at his co-defendants.
Kessler and neo-Nazi podcaster Christopher Cantwell were the final witnesses among two dozen defendants accused of conspiring to commit racially motivated violence in a lawsuit brought by the nonprofit Integrity First for America on behalf of nine people who physically injured or emotionally traumatized during the chaotic events on the weekend of Aug. 11-12, 2017 in Charlottesville.
In other messages, Kessler discussed tactics for ensuring that counter-protesters showed up, including taunting them on social media, and even planting false information through a fake social media account indicating that Spencer would be at a Charlottesville bar in the hopes of provoking antiracist activists two months ahead of the rally.
In another Discord message, Kessler solicited white nationalist supporters to invite someone he called an “Antifa manlet” to Unite the Right, lamenting, “I want to talk shit, but as the event organizer I can only say so much. People need to bullycide them into attending.”
https://www.rawstory.com/charlottesville-nazi-trial-2655743224/